April 26, 2024
NEW DELHI – Instant messaging app WhatsApp has told the Delhi High Court that it will stop functioning if it is forced to break message encryption, which allows only sender and the receiver to access messages.
WhatsApp’s parent company Meta has challenged the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules 2021.
As per the amended IT rules, companies are required to trace chats in order to identify the sender of the message.
“As a platform, we are saying, if we are told to break encryption, then WhatsApp goes,” the company’s lawyer told the high court during the hearing on Thursday.
The lawyer said, “There is no such rule anywhere else in the world. Not even in Brazil. We will have to keep a complete chain and we don’t know which messages will be asked to be decrypted. It means millions and millions of messages will have to be stored for a number of years.”
He further argued that WhatsApp has more than 400 million users in India and they mostly use the app for its privacy features.
The company argued that “any rules undermining encryption of content as well as the privacy of the users violate fundamental rights guaranteed under Articles 14, 19, and 21 of the Constitution of India.
Earlier, the Centre had told the Delhi High Court that WhatsApp and Facebook which monetizes users’ information for business or commercial purposes are not legally entitled to claim that it protects privacy.