WhatsApp says it will exit India if forced to compromise with privacy, Delhi High Court informed
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New Delhi (PTI): The Delhi High Court on Thursday listed for hearing on August 14 petitions by WhatsApp LLC and its parent company Facebook Inc, now Meta, challenging the 2021 Information Technology (IT) rules for social media intermediaries requiring the messaging app to trace chats and make provisions to identify the first originator of information.
WhatsApp informed the Delhi High Court that its more than 400 million users in India primarily rely on the platform for its robust privacy features. The messaging giant said that that it would cease operations in India if compelled to compromise message encryption, a pivotal safeguard ensuring only intended parties can access message content. Representing the Meta-owned company, its lawyer firmly stated to the court, "As a platform, we are stating that if we are mandated to dismantle encryption, then WhatsApp will exit.”
Observing that the matter would have to be argued by the parties, a bench headed by Acting Chief Justice Manmohan asked if the issue has been considered in any other country.
"There is no such rule anywhere else in the world. Not even in Brazil," the lawyer appearing for WhatsApp said, adding that the requirement was against the privacy of users and the rule was introduced without any consultation.
The bench, also comprising Justice Manmeet P S Arora, said privacy rights were not absolute and "somewhere balance has to be done."
Central government counsel said the rule was significant when objectionable content is spread on platforms in cases such as those of communal violence.
The Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 were announced by the government on February 25, 2021 and required large social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp to comply with the latest norms.
The bench ordered that the matter be listed for hearing on August 14 to await the transfer of all other petitions challenging several aspects of the 2021 IT Rules to it pursuant to a Supreme Court order.
During the hearing, WhatsApp's counsel said steps have been taken to "contain virality" and it was possible to trace the originator "traditionally" by examining the sequence of senders of a message.
"They say open the entire technology. Is it proportional? I am caught in between," he added.
The counsel also informed the court that all platforms would have to comply with the new data protection law, which deals with collection, processing and sharing of data, once the relevant rules are framed.
In its petition filed in 2021, WhatsApp has said the requirement of intermediaries enabling the identification of the first originator of information in India upon government or court order puts end-to-end encryption and its benefits "at risk".
WhatsApp LLC has urged the high court to declare Rule 4(2) of the intermediary rules as unconstitutional, ultra vires the IT Act and illegal and sought that no criminal liability be imposed on it for any alleged non-compliance with Rule 4(2) which requires enabling the identification of the first originator of information.
WhatsApp said the traceability provision is unconstitutional and against the fundamental right to privacy.
The plea has said the traceability requirement forces the company to break end-to-end encryption on its messaging service, as well as the privacy principles underlying it, and infringes upon the fundamental rights to privacy and free speech of the hundreds of millions of citizens using WhatsApp to communicate privately and securely.
In its reply, the Centre has said the law empowers it to expect such entities to create safe cyberspace and counter “illegal content” either themselves or by assisting the law enforcement agencies.
The Centre has told the court that Section 87 of the Information Technology Act gave it power to formulate Rule 4(2) of the Intermediary Rules which mandates a significant social media intermediary to enable the identification of the first originator of an information in “legitimate state interest” of curbing the menace of fake news and offences concerning national security and public order as well as women and children.
The Centre has also stated that if a platform does not have the means to trace the first originator without breaking the encryption then it is the platform which “ought to develop such mechanism” in larger public duty.
On March 22, the Supreme Court transferred to the Delhi High Court a batch of pleas pending before different high courts across the country challenging the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021.
Several petitions were pending on the issue before different high courts including Karnataka, Madras, Calcutta, Kerala and Bombay high courts.
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iPhone lands in temple hundial, everything in offering box goes into god’s account: TN Minister
Chennai, Dec 21: A devotee who has accidently dropped his iPhone into the hundial of a temple here is in a peculiar situation. He wants it back, but the Tamil Nadu Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments department politely declined his request, saying it has now become temple property.
Immediately after realising his mistake, the devotee later identified as Dinesh, approached the officials of the Sri Kandaswamy temple, Thiruporur, and pleaded that his iPhone which inadvertently fell into the offering box when he was making a donation be returned to him.
On Friday, after opening the offering box, the temple administration contacted him saying the gadget was found in the hundial and he was free to retrieve only the data from it. However, Dinesh refused to accept and insisted that his phone be returned to him.
When this issue was taken to the notice of the HR & CE Minister P K Sekar Babu on Saturday he replied “anything that is deposited into the offering box, even if it be an arbitrary action, goes into god’s account.”
“As per the practises and tradition at the temples, any offerings made into the hundial directly goes into the account of the deity of that temple. Rules do not permit the administration to return the offerings back to the devotees,” Babu told reporters here.
He would discuss with the department officials to see if there was any possibility to compensate the devotee and accordingly make a decision, the Minister said after inspecting the construction of the Arulmigu Mariamman temple in Madhavaram, here, and the renovation of temple tank belonging to the Arulmigu Kailasanathar temple in Venugopal Nagar, here at an estimated cost of Rs 2.5 crore.
This incident is not the first such one in the state. According to a senior HR & CE official a devotee S Sangeetha from Alappuzha in Kerala unwittingly dropped her 1.75 sovereign gold chain into the hundial of the renowned Sri Dhandayuthapani Swamy temple in Palani in May 2023.
The gold chain fell into the hundial when she removed the Tulasi garland around her neck to make an offering. However, considering her financial background and after confirming through CCTV footages that the chain had fallen by accident, the chairman of the temple board of trustees bought a new gold chain of same value at his personal expense and gave it to her.
The official explained that as per the Installation, Safeguarding and Accounting of Hundial Rules, 1975, none of the offerings made into the hundials can be returned to the owner at any point, as they belonged to the temple.
