The Central Government-WhatsApp Tension; Threatening the Right to Privacy

The Indian Government has drafted a new rule the so called ‘the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021. It has notified in February 2021 itself and gave more time to the Social Media firms till May 25 to comply with it. WhatsApp, Facebook’s messaging app, has filed a lawsuit in the Delhi court against the above mentioned IT Rules of the Centre. Actually, WhatsApp has nearly half a billion users which is a shining example for its popularity in the subcontinent. Now, this Tech giant opposes the Centre in the issue of new rule which undermines the privacy of the users. The new rules mandate the social media intermediaries who provide the messaging service in the country to expose the details of the first originator of the information and trace its source if any judicial enquiry is needed in certain messages. This traceability is problematized by the Social media entities.WhatsApp, the most popular messaging app finds this mandate very problematic owing to the erosion of secrecy of the users.

Problem with WhatsApp

WhatsApp’s mode of messaging system is ‘end to end encrypted’. This means that only the sender and the receiver can get the message and even the WhatsApp cannot know the content of the message. This end to end encryption assures the user their privacy and this messaging style attracts more people to use the App. WhatsApp is concerned with the new rules of the Centre that a major chunk of its users may avoid WhatsApp messaging.  On the same time, the citizens of the country are anguished in jettisoning the right to privacy which was guaranteed by the Constitution under the Article of 21. WhatsApp also clarifies that the new rules are not just and fair because it is most likely to trap the innocent people too. If anyone download an article or any other kind of data from the messages of email and send it to the other, then he will be recorded as its originator even though, he is not the real originator. Thus, traceability always can never find the real perpetrator and sometimes the innocent people may be depicted as the guilty. It reveals the impracticability of the new rules and makes it foolish one. Further, although the Government wants only the source of illegal messages and its originators WhatsApp is compelled to follow the source of every messages because the Tech giant never knows which message would be harmful in future and what would be needed by the Judicial bodies and the Government in coming days. And it will completely eradicate the privacy stand of the messaging App.

The stakeholder of WhatsApp has reiterated the new IT rules of the Indian Government is predatory in nature and it will not only destroy the social media messaging firms in the country but also it will desperate the citizens who are concerned in the erosion of their valuable right of privacy which was assured by the Indian Constitution. In fact, WhatsApp which is providing its messaging services in many other countries never become a security threat to their internal matters. On the contrary, this Giant messaging firm always has the history of cooperation with investigation agencies of the different countries and they will provide the IP address, name and other details if any security threat was arisen. For instance, in the US, WhatsApp always has responded positively to the requirements of the law and security forces by giving them the name, the last seen date, IP address, the start date of the message, profile photo, email address, details of the blocked numbers by the accused and address book etc. In albeit the messaging firm does its best to cooperate with the investigation bodies in the situation of any security or other threat, the Centre wants to lock the social media messaging firms with its legislative power. The citizens, devoid of the Tech giants, want to protect their privacy rights and are duty-bound to react against the predatory laws and rules which are going to violate their fundamental rights.

Stand of the Centre

Electronics and Information Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad recently revealed,“Government is accountable to protect the privacy rights of the citizens and it is also being duty bound to maintain the law and order in the country. Being the social media messaging plat forms unfortunately became the venue to spread the crime and security problems to the country the Government wants to control it through the legislation. The concern of WhatsApp citing the privacy matter is not just and acceptable because it discloses details of the users to Facebook, its parent body, for the purpose of advertisements and on the same time it is not willing to disclose it to the Government of a country for the sake of maintaining the law and order. It can never be approved”. Actually, what Ravi Shankar Prasad should understand is that Facebook does not penetrate to the privacy and secrecy of the users of the WhatsApp. On the contrary, the Government here wants to know the source of the message and its originator that violates the rights of the privacy of the citizens which was guaranteed by the Constitution. And also, this kind of rules and regulation will drag hesitancy of the tech giants like WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter to provide their services in India.