Whatsapp in India | Whatsapp says it will leave India if encryption has to be broken dgtl

WhatsApp will leave India, but they won’t violate privacy rules. This is what the lawyer of Mata told the Delhi High Court. WhatsApp has clarified its position in the case of information technology rules announced by the central government in 2021. Their lawyers said that people use WhatsApp because of the guarantee of privacy. So no compromise can be made with him.

In February 2021, the Center promulgated the Information Technology (Intermediate Guidelines and Digital Media Code of Ethics) Rules, 2021. It was said that social media like Twitter (now X), Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp will have to comply with the new rules. If necessary, follow the chat to find the source of any viral information.

WhatsApp provides ‘end to end encryption’ service. Any chat through this is restricted to the respective users. No one outside has access to that conversation. Even WhatsApp’s parent company Meta can’t read those chats. The rules announced by the Center also called for WhatsApp to break this privacy fence if necessary. The authorities did not agree.

In this hearing, the Delhi High Court Acting Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora, WhatsApp’s lawyer said that it is not possible to break the way in which they protect privacy. To do that, a long list of messages must be kept for a long time. Because it cannot be determined in advance when information about a message will be needed. As a result, millions of messages must be stored for years. which is impossible So if this rule is applied to WhatsApp, they will be forced to leave India. No other country in the world has introduced any such rules regarding WhatsApp, their lawyer said.

In this case, the center’s lawyer argued that WhatsApp is often used as a tool to spread offensive messages on social media. Which is harmful to the public. Even, such messages sometimes lead to communal unrest. So it was necessary to introduce that rule of 2021.

Court observed, common people have right to privacy. But it is never absolute. A balance needs to be kept between the two. The case will again come up for hearing in the Delhi High Court on August 14. On August 14, the Delhi High Court will hear all the cases filed so far in the Supreme Court challenging various aspects of the Centre’s announcement of IT norms in 2021. The Supreme Court transferred the cases to the Delhi High Court on March 22.