WhatsApp Sues Indian Govt Over Law Compelling It To Decrypt Private Messages

Instant messaging application, WhatsApp is suing the Indian Government over new regulations that would force it to break its encryption and potentially reveal identities of some of its users.

WhatsApp filed the lawsuit in the High Court of Delhi on Wednesday after India’s IT ministry released a statement saying it would require WhatsApp to disclose who sent a message in cases related to the “sovereignty, integrity and security of India, public order incitement to an offence relating to rape, sexually explicit material or child sexual abuse material.”

The Ministry also said that rumours and misinformation spreading over WhatsApp had caused lynching and riots in the past.

“Any operations being run in India are subject to the law of the land,” the ministry’s statement added. “WhatsApp’s refusal to comply with the [rules] is a clear act of [defiance],” the Ministry had said.

But in a statement, WhatsApp said they were committed to protecting the privacy of their users’ personal messages and will continue to do all they could within the laws of India to do so.

“Civil society and technical experts around the world have consistently argued that a requirement to ‘trace’ private messages would break end-to-end encryption and lead to real abuse,” they said.

India had in 2018 proposed that WhatsApp should make software changes that would make originators of messages traceable after the spread of false information in India through the platform resulted in multiple real-life casualties.

The suggestion, however, became law this year. The Indian Government gave all large social media companies three months to comply with the new rules.

Wednesday is the deadline for the companies, including WhatsApp’s parent company, Facebook, to comply with the rules.

Last year, India banned over 200 Chinese apps, including the popular TikTok, claiming they posed a threat to national security and defense of India.

Tension has been building between American technology giants and the Indian government lately. Earlier in the year, Twitter refused to block accounts that criticized New Delhi and Prime Minister, Narendra Modi.

Last week, New Delhi objected to Twitter labeling some of its politicians’ tweets as manipulative. Earlier in the week, police in Delhi visited Twitter offices to “serve a notice” to the company.