Tracing messages will violate privacy, chill free speech: WhatsApp
Invoking the right to privacy ruling of the Supreme Court, Facebook-owned messaging platform WhatsApp has moved the Delhi High Court to challenge the traceability provision in the new IT Rules 2021, contending that “this breaks end-to-end encryption…and impermissibly infringes upon users’ fundamental rights to privacy and freedom of speech”.
In a petition filed Tuesday evening, the last day to comply with the new rules, WhatsApp said the provision requiring intermediaries to enable identification of the first originator of information on their platforms could also put journalists and activists at risk of retaliation in India and infringe upon rights to free speech and expression.