If told to break encryption, then WhatsApp goes: Meta counsel to Delhi HC

Meta-owned WhatsApp told the Delhi High Court on Friday that it would cease to operate in India if it is forced to comply with the country’s Information Technology (IT) rules that govern digital platforms. 

The platform’s counsel Tejas Karia reportedly told a bench of Acting Chief Justice Manmohan that compliance with the IT Rules will force the company to break end-to-end encryption of messages. “As a platform, we are saying, if we are told to break encryption, then WhatsApp goes,” Karia told the Delhi high court.

WhatsApp is challenging Rule 4(2) of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, which mandates social media intermediaries to enable the identification of the first originator of information when ordered by a court or competent authority. 

According to Meta’s counsel, there is no such rule anywhere else in the world, not even Brazil. Karia added, “We will have to keep a complete chain and we don’t know which messages will be asked to be decrypted. It means millions and millions of messages will have to be stored for a number of years.”

The counsel for the central government, Kirtiman Singh, said the rule was significant when objectionable content is spread on platforms in cases such as those of communal violence. As per media reports, Singh claimed that it is important to trace message originators, especially in current circumstances. 

India is the biggest market for WhatsApp with over 500 million users. Multiple government bodies also use the app to disseminate important information instantly to the citizen's hands.

Singh further noted that the rule exceeds the Information Technology Act, which does not mandate breaking encryption. The court adjourned the case to August 14, and it will be heard along with other cases challenging various provisions of the IT Rules 2021.