New Delhi: WhatsApp and its parent firm META opposed the 2021 Information Technology (IT) guidelines during a recent Delhi High Court hearing. The messaging platform’s legal representative voiced serious worries, stating that if forced to undermine the encryption that safeguards user messages, the business may think about pulling out of the Indian market. The foundation of the platform’s user trust and appeal is its dedication to user privacy, which is emphasized by its end-to-end encryption.
Tejas Karia, an attorney for Whatsapp, argued before a bench made up of Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora and Acting Chief Justice Manmohan. According to Karia, compelling WhatsApp to decrypt communications would drastically change the privacy protections offered by the platform, thereby having an impact on millions of messages and user privacy. He drew attention to the practical and moral difficulties with this demand, pointing out that it would necessitate keeping and possibly decrypting enormous amounts of private correspondence.
The World’s most famous and widely used messaging platform including in India is WhatsApp. The META-owned company swears by its privacy features and often says that whatever its users share stays between them and the receiver as the messages are protected by end-to-end encryption.
“Whatever you share, it stays between you. That’s because your personal messages are protected by end-to-end encryption. We will never weaken this security and we clearly label each chat so you know our commitment,” the company noted on its FAQ page. However Indian govt’s IT Rules 2021 might force WhatsApp to break end-to-end encryption.
In its FAQ page, the company noted “Whatever you share, it stays between you. That’s because your personal messages are protected by end-to-end encryption. We will never weaken this security and we clearly label each chat so you know our commitment”. However, the Indian Govt’s IT Rule 2021 might force WhatsApp to break end-to-end encryption.
According to reports, WhatsApp threatened to leave India if it had to crack end-to-end encryption during a hearing before the High Court. In February 2021, the government of India announced the IT Act 2021, which included the intermediary guidelines and digital media ethics code. The govt. had put forward a firm stand to identify the origin of the message. This means companies like WhatsApp, Telegram and other apps which use end-to-end encryption for messages will have to remove this feature to comply with the Indian government’s rule.
In response, the court noted that privacy is not unassailable and that modifications may be required, acknowledging the difficulty of striking a balance between individual liberties and legal obligations. Karia further pointed out that there are no such rules demanding message decryption anywhere in the world, not even in nations like Brazil, which is renowned for having strict internet laws.
As the discussion continued the Indian Govt’s attorney defended the rules, stressing the importance of rules in situations where platforms might be used to spread objectionable content, such as during incidents of communal violence. The next hearing has been scheduled for August 14.
