WhatsApp, Government And New Rules

  • Recently, messaging platform WhatsApp has moved the Delhi High Court to challenge the traceability provision in the New IT Rules 2021.
  • Earlier the Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY) had sent a notice to WhatsApp asking it to withdraw a controversial update to its privacy policy which might be a threat to Data Protection of Indians.

TRACEABILITY PROVISIONS

  • It requires intermediaries to enable identification of the first originator of information on their platforms.
  • Rule 4(2) of the Intermediary Rules states that a significant social media intermediary providing services primarily in the nature of messaging shall enable the identification of the first originator of the information on its computer resource as may be required by a judicial order or an order passed by a competent authority under the Information and Technology (IT) Act 2000.
  • Failure to comply with this requirement would take away the indemnity provided to social media intermediaries under Section 79 of the IT Act.

CONCERNS RAISED 

  • This breaks end-to-end encryption and impermissibly infringes upon users’ fundamental Rights to privacy and Freedom of speech.
  • Article 19(1)(a) of the Indian Constitution guarantees the freedom of speech and expression.
  • The right to privacy is protected as an intrinsic part of the right to life and personal liberty under Article 21 and as a part of the freedoms guaranteed by Part III of the Constitution (Puttaswamy Judgement 2017).
  • Furthermore, traceability would not be effective in finding the originator of a particular message because people commonly see content on websites or social media platforms and then copy and paste them into chats.
  • It would also be impossible to understand the context of how it was originally shared.



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