WhatsApp has reached the court against the new IT rules of the Government of India. The company has filed an application in the Delhi High Court on May 25 against this rule.
Facebook-owned messaging app WhatsApp (WhatsApp) has reached the court against the new IT rules of the Government of India. In the new rules, WhatsApp and similar companies will have to keep track of the origin of the message sent on their messaging app, ie from where the message was sent first. Against this rule, the company has filed an application in the Delhi High Court on 25 May.
According to a Reuters report, a WhatsApp spokesperson gave information about this, saying, “Telling the messaging app to keep a trace of chat in this way would be like keeping an eye on all the messages sent on WhatsApp, which is end-to-end. Will eliminate encryption and violate people’s ‘right to privacy’.
The company has also said that, ‘In the meantime we will continue to negotiate with the Government of India to keep people safe, including the response to the legally sought legal request for any information.’
According to the law, WhatsApp is required to expose only those who have been accused of wrongdoing, the company says that it cannot do so. Since the messages are encrypted end-to-end, whatsapp says to comply with the law is that it will have break encryption for the receiver as well as the ‘originator’ of the message.
Reuters has not independently confirmed that WhatsApp, which has around 400 million users in India, has filed a complaint in court, or it may be reviewed by the court. Those who were aware of the case refused to recognize it due to the sensitivity of the case. Apart from this, a WhatsApp spokesperson declined to comment.
What are the new rules?
Under this guideline, social media platforms such as Facebook, twitter, Instagram have to appoint a complaint officer, a chief compliance officer and a nodal contact officer, whose deadline ends on May 26 and none of the platforms have appointed them so far. Have not If companies fail to follow the rules, then their intermediary status can be terminated and criminal action can be taken against them.
Under the new laws, the monitoring mechanism will include a committee with representatives from the ministries of Defense, External Affairs, Home, Information and Broadcasting, Law, IT and Women and Child Development. If he wishes, he will have the power to take suo motu cognizance to hear the complaints of violation of the code of conduct.
The government will appoint an officer of the rank of Joint Secretary or above as an ‘authorized officer’, who can direct the content to be blocked.
