WhatsApp, Signal not honouring lawful requisition: Officials

Platforms like WhatsApp and Signal do not cooperate with law enforcement agencies citing end-to-end encryption and don’t even honour lawful requisitions, Government officials have told a Rajya Sabha panel looking into the issue of pornography on social media and its effects on children.

Appearing before the panel, MEITY in a note said the Ministry faces many legal challenges from social media platforms on the issue of pornography as their servers are abroad and they “claim to be governed by laws of hosting country when information for investigation is sought”.

While in some cases, the ministry said, only meta data is shared and for majority cases either mutual legal assistance treaty or letter rogatory is insisted upon which is a very time-consuming process.