In an ongoing hearing at the Delhi High Court, Meta-owned WhatsApp said it would exit India operations if it were forced to compromise message encryption.
The platform emphasised that end-to-end encryption is at the core of its services and safeguards user privacy by ensuring that only the sender and recipient can access message content.
“As a platform, we are saying, if we are told to break encryption, then WhatsApp goes,” Tejas Karia, appearing for WhatsApp,
He emphasised that people choose WhatsApp as a preferred messaging platform due to its robust end-to-end encryption, meaning that only the sender and the recipient have access to the messages.
With over 400 million users, India is WhatsApp’s largest market.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg earlier lauded India’s adoption of messaging technologies during a virtual address at Meta’s annual event last year. “India (is) a country that’s at the forefront… You’re leading the world in terms of how people and businesses have embraced messaging,” he had said.
WhatsApp and its parent company, Meta, are challenging the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules 2021, which mandate the tracing of chats and identification of original messengers.
The companies arguing against the IT Rules 2021 argue that these rules undermine encryption, thus infringing upon user privacy guaranteed by the Indian Constitution.
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