The new IT regulations have now become a bone of contention between the Indian government and WhatsApp as the latter has moved to the Delhi High Court, seeking to block the implementation of these new rules. It may be recalled that 25 May was the deadline for social media companies to comply with the new IT regulations. However, as of now, only developers of the home-grown Koo app have complied with them.
In its legal complaint, WhatsApp has asked the Delhi High Court to declare that the rule which requires social media companies to identify the ‘first originator of information’ is a violation of privacy as per India’s Constitution. The Supreme Court of India had in 2017 declared ‘Right to Privacy ‘ as a Fundamental Right protected under the Indian Constitution.
The messaging app in a statement to media stated, “Requiring messaging apps to trace chats is the equivalent of asking us to keep a fingerprint of every single message sent on WhatsApp, which would break end-to-end encryption and fundamentally undermines people’s right to privacy.”
It may be recalled that WhatsApp had introduced end-to-end encryption in 2016 to ensure only the sender and the receiver of a particular message can view it. However, to comply with the new IT regulations, it will have to trace billions of messages sent each day on its platform.
The new IT rules had been released by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology(MeitY) in February 2021. It requires “significant social media intermediaries” to appoint a compliance officer in India in addition to setting up a grievance response mechanism. They are also required to take down any post within 36 hours of a legal order. If the companies don’t comply with the new rules of the government, they risk losing the protection they currently enjoy from lawsuits against them. The companies will be held responsible for anything posted on their platform.