Had no option left other than seeking opinion of courts: WhatsApp on new media rules

The IT rules published by the government earlier this year, call for 'traceability' of messages, which is at odds with the company's policy

WhatsApp, which has moved the Delhi High Court against the provisions of the Social Media Intermediary Rules 2021, on Wednesday said that the new guidelines will violate its end-to-end encryption policy.

With the government threatening criminal penalties for companies that do not comply with the new social media rules coming into effect today, WhatsApp stated it had no option left other than seeking counsel from the courts.

The Facebook-owned company said that the new guidelines that require digital media companies to disclose the identity of the first originator of messages breach the right to privacy.

"Requiring messaging apps to “trace” chats is the equivalent of asking us to keep a fingerprint of every single message sent on WhatsApp, which would break end-to-end encryption and fundamentally undermines people’s right to privacy," a WhatsApp spokesperson said.

Read | WhatsApp sues govt, says new media rules mean end to privacy

"We have consistently joined civil society and experts around the world in opposing requirements that would violate the privacy of our users. In the meantime, we will also continue to engage with the Government of India on practical solutions aimed at keeping people safe, including responding to valid legal requests for the information available to us,” the spokesperson added.

Stressing the dangers of traceability, the company said that because of it, "innocent people could get caught up in investigations, or even go to jail, for sharing content that later becomes problematic in the eyes of a government" even if they did not mean any harm by sharing it.

"WhatsApp deployed end-to-end encryption throughout our app in 2016, so that calls, messages, photos, videos, and voice notes to friends and family are only shared with the intended recipient and no one else (not even us)," the Facebook-owned company said in a statement.

WhatsApp has filed a petition before the Delhi High Court against the provisions of the Social Media Intermediary rules 2021, which require digital media companies to disclose the identity of the first originator of message in a bid to curb misinformation.

The new rules, announced in February — which come into force from Wednesday (May 26) — requires large social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp to follow additional due diligence, including the appointment of a chief compliance officer, nodal contact person and resident grievance officer and monitoring of objectionable content, preparing monthly compliance report and removal of objectionable content.

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The new rules also specify that social media firms adopt features that allow traceability of messages and voluntary user verification.

The new IT rules, in addition to calling for “traceability” risk criminal penalties for non-compliance.

WhatsApp has said that it consistently opposes legal action that would break end-to-end encryption.

The social media platform also filed a petition before the Supreme Court of Brazil on a similar matter.

Facebook on Tuesday said it aims to comply with the provisions of the Social Media Intermediary rules 2021 and working on to implement operational processes.

"We aim to comply with the provisions of the IT rules and continue to discuss a few of the issues which need more engagement with the government. Pursuant to the IT rules, we are working to implement operational processes and improve efficiencies," spokeperson of the Facebook said on Tuesday.