WhatsApp moves Delhi high court against new guidelines

• WhatsApp has moved the Delhi High Court against India’s new and stricter IT Rules that require instant messaging platforms to aid in identifying the ‘originator’ of messages.
• WhatsApp says Rule 4(2) of the Intermediary Rules is unconstitutional, it also says traceability provision is against the fundamental right to privacy.
• It will force WhatsApp to break end-to-end encryption and put the privacy of journalists and activists at great risk.

WhatsApp has challenged Section 4 of Part II of the rules that were notified on February 25.

• The Section says that a ‘significant social media intermediary’ (social media companies with more than 50 lakh registered users) primarily providing messaging services must enable the identification of the first originator of the information.
• Centre says right to privacy comes with certain reasonable restrictions
• Non-compliance with the new IT rules will result in social media firms losing their ‘intermediary’ status, which offers protection from liabilities for any third-party information hosted by them