WhatsApp on Thursday told the Delhi High Court that it may shut down operations in India if it is asked to break end-to-end encryption on its platform, according to a report. The Meta-owned instant messaging platform made this statement during the hearing of a petition filed by it and Facebook challenging Rule 4(2) of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021. A social media intermediary will help identify the first originator of a certain message when ordered to do so by a competent authority.
according to a report By Bar and Bench, lawyer Tejas Karia, representing WhatsApp, told a division bench of Acting Chief Justice Manmohan Singh and Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora, “As a platform, we are saying, if we are asked to break the encryption , then WhatsApp goes away.” Kariya also highlighted that people use the platform because they feel reassured by its focus on privacy and security and because messages are end-to-end encrypted.
The lawyers were referring to Rule 4(2) which states, “A significant social media intermediary providing services primarily in the nature of messaging shall be able to identify the first originator of the information on its computer resource as determined by the judicial authorities.” “As may be necessary as per the order.” “An order passed by a court of competent jurisdiction or passed by a competent authority under section 69 of the Act.”
Karia further argued that this rule would force WhatsApp to store millions of messages on its servers for many years because the platform does not know which messages it may be asked to decrypt. The effort may also put a strain on the platform’s cloud servers and make the servers more expensive to operate and maintain. Karia highlighted that WhatsApp has not been asked to share this information anywhere in the world.
Meanwhile, central government standing counsel (CGSC) Kirtiman Singh argued that there is a need for some mechanism on social media to detect certain messages. The court has taken the position that a balance should be established between the two parties. The hearing of the case has been adjourned till August 14.
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