WhatsApp has threatened to exit India if asked to “break end-to-end encryption”

NEW DELHI: Meta’s WhatsApp has threatened to exit India if directed by law to break end-to-end encryption offered on its digital messaging platform.

WhatsApp has reportedly made this submission to the Delhi High Court in a plea challenging the  Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021.

In a bid to counter disinformation campaigns and spread of objectionable content, the Rules require social media intermediaries and messaging platforms to make provisions for identifying the first originator of information.

The Centre also argued that the Rules are significant as they are meant to curb the spread of objectionable content on platforms in cases such as those of communal violence, by identifying the originating source of such content.

However, arguing against such a requirement, WhatsApp has told Delhi High Court that this will effectively require them to maintain a complete chain of data for years together and decryption of messages on orders in this regard, thus compromising privacy.

Therefore, Advocate Tejas Karia for WhatsApp reportedly told the Court, “As a platform, we are saying, if we are told to break encryption, then WhatsApp goes. We will have to keep a complete chain, and we don’t know which messages (we) will be asked to decrypt. It means millions and millions of messages will have to be stored for a number of years.” 

The Rules were announced by the Centre on February 25, 2021 and affect the functioning of various large social media platforms including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and WhatsApp.

The matter was being heard by a division bench of Acting Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora.

WhatsApp has challenged the Rules on various grounds, including that they violate people’s right to privacy.

It further raised the concern that people actually use the platform due to the privacy ensured by its end-to-end encryption feature and allowing decryption will compromise the feature.

The Court enquired about the law on the issue in foreign jurisdictions, however, it was informed that “no such rule exists anywhere else in the world, not even in Brazil." 

However, the Court highlighted the need to strike a balance between the right to privacy and the Rules and said that privacy rights are ultimately not absolute.

The bench has ordered for the matter to be listed for hearing on August 14.

On March 22, the Supreme Court had transferred to the Delhi High Court a batch of pleas pending before different high courts across the country challenging the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021.

Several petitions were pending on the issue before different High Courts, including Karnataka, Madras, Calcutta, Kerala and Bombay.