WhatsApp threatens to exit India: What are new IT rules on tracing originator

WhatsApp, owned by its parent company Meta Inc., has threatened to leave India if it is forced to break encryption of messages and calls on its instant messaging platform.

“As a platform, we are saying, if we are told to break encryption, then WhatsApp goes,” the lawyer appearing for WhatsApp told the Delhi high court.

When asked by a bench headed by Acting Chief Justice Manmohan if the issue has been considered in any other country, 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.”

Read: People use WhatsApp for privacy, company tells Delhi HC: ‘That goes, we exit India’

The court was hearing the petitions by WhatsApp and Meta challenging the 2021 Information Technology (IT) rules for social media intermediaries requiring the messaging app to trace chats and make provisions to identify the first originator of information.

What's the case?

The Narendra Modi government has directed large social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp to comply with the latest norms under the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021. The counsel for the central government said the rule was significant when objectionable content is spread on platforms in cases such as those of communal violence.

Read: 'Then WhatsApp goes': Firm warns Delhi high court of India exit over encryption

During the hearing, WhatsApp's counsel said steps have been taken to "contain virality" and it was possible to trace the originator "traditionally" by examining the sequence of senders of a message.

"They say open the entire technology. Is it proportional? I am caught in between," he added.