WhatsApp, a messaging service, filed a motion with the Delhi High Court on Thursday stating that it will cease operations if it is forced to crack message encryption. The statements were made during the hearing of the petitions filed by Facebook and WhatsApp contesting the recently modified IT Rules by the division bench chaired by the Acting Chief Justice.

WhatsApp vs Indian Government: What’s The Case

"As a platform, we are saying, if we are told to break encryption, then WhatsApp goes," WhatsApp's lawyer said. WhatsApp argued against the IT Rules change, stating that the mandate violates user privacy and was implemented without consultation.

The Delhi High Court was previously informed by the Centre that Facebook and WhatsApp, which monetize user data for commercial or corporate objectives, are not legally permitted to argue that their privacy policies are upheld.

Regulators from a number of nations have made it very evident that Facebook has to be held accountable for its data management and service policies.

In an affidavit opposing WhatsApp and Facebook petition challenging recently amended IT Rules, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) claims that WhatsApp has already violated the fundamental rights of its Indian users by denying them access to any dispute resolution mechanisms within the nation. The following reproduces the relevant sections of the Governing Law and the Dispute Resolution provisions.

Recently, Facebook and WhatsApp have contested the new regulations, arguing that they are unlawful and infringe on users' right to privacy.

The Ministry has also informed the Delhi High Court that in the event that the IT Rules 2021 are not put into effect, it will be difficult for law enforcement to track down the source of fraud messages, and these messages will spread to other platforms, upsetting social harmony and disrupting public order.

The affidavit went on to say that MeitY's approach to drafting laws and regulations is based on the ideas that the Internet should be accessible, safe, and trusted, that platforms should answer to users and that no one should be able to deny Indian citizens the fundamental rights protected by the Constitution of India.

It went on to say that the mentioned statutory provision and the Rules are only an expression of established international jurisprudence that has grown around the secondary liability or responsibility of intermediaries in the evolving dynamic of human interactions that the internet and platforms that qualify as "significant social media intermediaries" enable.

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Additionally, it made the case that important social media middlemen support and facilitate the publication and exchange of ideas and information between people by offering a platform that is widely available to everyone at a pace and scale never seen in human history.

It is argued that major social media intermediaries are subject to the principle of secondary liability or responsibility, which states that even though they did not create the problematic or illegal content, they still have obligations to follow certain rules in the event that the problematic content violates the law because it makes it possible to project, publicise, or advertise the content.

It is argued that the platform that the major social media intermediaries provide places a commensurate obligation on the same in terms of collaboration and due diligence when it comes to the legally defined domains.

In a previous statement, WhatsApp stated: "Requiring messaging apps to 'trace' chats is the equivalent of asking us to keep a fingerprint of every single message sent on WhatsApp, which would break end-to-end encryption and fundamentally undermines people's right to privacy."

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"We have consistently joined civil society and experts around the world in opposing requirements that would violate our users' privacy," a WhatsApp spokesperson said. We will also maintain working with the Indian government to find workable ways to ensure public safety in the interim, including answering legitimate court requests for the data that we have on hand."

In the exercise of its authority under section 87(2) of the Information Technology Act, 2000, and in replacement of the previous Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines) Rules 2011, the Centre formulated the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules 2021 on February 25.

(With Agency Inputs)