According to the latest reports, in a surprising move, WhatsApp has filed legal action against the Indian government, seeking to block the regulations that will come into effect on May 26th. According to sources, these regulations will require Facebook and its subsidiaries to break privacy protections.
According to Reuters, citing people familiar with the matter, the WhatsApp lawsuit requires the High Court to label the new rules as a violation of the privacy rights in the Indian Constitution because it requires social media companies to determine the “first source of information” when requested by officials.
The law requires WhatsApp to identify people accused of any wrongdoing. The messaging giant said it was unable to do this given that all chat records are encrypted end-to-end. WhatsApp stated that in order to comply with the law, it will have to break encryption for the recipients and originators of the message.
Although a WhatsApp spokesperson declined to comment on the matter, Reuters said it was unable to independently confirm the complaint submitted by WhatsApp to the court, nor could it confirm whether the court would review the complaint.
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Before the new rules set by the Ministry of Information Technology of India take effect, social media companies have 90 days to respond to these rules. Failure will result in loss of protection against litigation and criminal prosecution.
The new media regulations require social media companies to appoint Indian citizens to play key roles in due diligence, delete flagged content within 36 hours of the legal order, hire a resident complaint officer, and even use automated procedures to delete pornographic content. Facebook clarified that it agrees to most of the terms, but is still seeking to negotiate some aspects. However, Twitter declined to comment.
According to people familiar with the matter, WhatsApp’s complaint cited the 2017 Supreme Court’s decision in favor of privacy in the “Puttaswamy” case. The court held that privacy must be preserved, except when legality, necessity, and proportionality all affect it. WhatsApp said the law failed these three tests.
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