WhatsApp May 'Exit India' If Forced To Break Encryption

According to recent reports, WhatsApp has informed the Delhi High Court that it would "exit India" if it is forced to compromise its message encryption system. The Meta-owned messaging platform made this statement in response to government's intervention and IT rules asking the company to break its encryption system to share data.

The company challenged 2021 Information Technology (IT) rules for social media intermediaries that directs the messaging app to trace chats and identify the first originator of information, which WhatsApp claims goes against the privacy and security of its users. The High Court has listed the petitions for hearing on August 14.

During a court hearing, the counsel representing WhatsApp stated that the platform would rather cease operations than comply with the requirement to break encryption. WhatsApp argued that such a demand would infringe on users' privacy and that the rule was implemented without proper consultations. The government had previously claimed that Facebook and WhatsApp monetized users' information for business and commercial purposes and could not claim to protect privacy.

The government had announced the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 on February 25, 2021, mandating major social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp to adhere to the latest regulations. The court has ordered that the matter be scheduled for a hearing on August 14 to await the transfer of other petitions challenging various aspects of the 2021 IT Rules as per a Supreme Court directive.

However, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) claimed that social media platform has not been following the guidelines and violated the fundamental rights of the users in India by denying them any dispute resolution rights in the country.

The clauses of Dispute Resolution and the Governing Law were mentioned to testify the same.