WhatsApp owned by Facebook has sued the Indian Government over new internet laws. These laws are said to “severely undermine” the privacy of WhatsApp users.
The company wants to block new rules as it would force them to remove encryption for all users. They will also be forced to eliminate all the recorded messages shared on the platform in a “traceable” database.
The fact that the new IT laws would give the Indian government authority to monitor online activity has been called oppressive and draconian. It also includes government supremacy on encrypted apps like WhatsApp and Signal.
WhatsApp filed a case in the Delhi High Court on Tuesday evening. It seeks to block a suite of new laws it said to require the company to “keep a fingerprint of every single message sent on Whatsapp.”
In an argument, it said that the regulations are unlawful and will deeply demoralize the right to privacy.
Key Points
“Some governments are seeking to force technology companies to find out who sent a particular message on private messaging services. This concept is called ‘traceability’,” said WhatsApp.
And since there is no other way to predict what messages, a government might wish to pursue, WhatsApp argues – an order for traceability is effectively an order for a “form of mass surveillance”. This is because it must trace every single message to comply.
This messaging app has over 400 million users in India and acts as a fundamental tool of communication across the country. Thus, the new rules are a violation of citizen’s rights to the preservation of privacy (as mentioned in the 2017 supreme court ruling).
Currently, these huge tech companies are growing their user base in India. And the Indian government led by prime minister Narendra Modi has brought in more and more uneven measures to regulate the online domain, thus causing disagreement.
The Modi government has already had many clashes with Twitter, demanding that the site remove anti-government tweets related to the farmers’ protests earlier this year. Also, more recent tweets which criticised the government’s handling of the pandemic.
Twitter fulfilled their demands by making certain posts unavailable to view inside India but refused to comply with others.
Facebook and Instagram were also recently instructed to remove anti-government posts mentioning coronavirus because it caused “panic” among people.
According to the new IT rules, social media companies are obligated to remove content within 36 hours of a legal order.
It’s the first time that WhatsApp has filed a lawsuit against a national government. Even before, the company had clashes with the Brazilian government over similar privacy concerns.
