WhatsApp has threatened to exit the Indian market if it will be forced to break encryption because of the revised IT rules. But the Indian government has said that it has not received any such message from Meta about its messaging app and its plans to shut down in the country.
IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw shared this reply to a question from Congress member Vivek Tankha in the Rajya Sabha this week. “Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has shared that WhatsApp or Meta has not informed the government about any such plans.”
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The whole story started when WhatsApp was being pushed to change its encryption standards to allow messages and its content to be tracked down. WhatsApp told the Delhi High Court earlier this year, as it faces a big battle to keep its users secure behind its vaunted end-to-end encryption for chats, calls, videos and more.
The Meta-owned app has got Tejas Karia to represent the platform and talk about the concerns of breaking encryption and threatening to exit the country rather than comply with the laws on this matter. He also mentioned that WhatsApp is used by millions because they feel secure with the features offered by the platform.
The Indian government has repeatedly claimed that WhatsApp and other messaging apps need to allow them to trace the messages under the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules 2021 which is not possible when the chats are secure behind encryption and the keys are not accessible to anyone, including WhatsApp.
The Meta-owned platform is challenging its case against the IT Rules and argued that breaking encryption violates the privacy of users under the Indian Constitution. The government feels that privacy rights are not absolute and wants to have a balance, which includes breaking encryption for chats.
WhatsApp has faced similar demands in other countries but continues to abide by its policies and belief that messages in all forms should and will be secure for a long time.
