In the past couple of months, Whatsapp has been under heavy criticism against the privacy policies by its users and the Indian government. However, in the recent development, Facebook-owned Whatsapp is taking the Indian government to protect user privacy.
Whatsapp Refuses to Reveal “Firsts Originator of Information”
As per the latest, IT (intermediary) rules 2021 by the Indian government, social media giants must share the information related to the “first originator of Information” with the government as and when required. To this, Whatsapp has objected that it infringes the privacy of its users. While the company is yet to make their lawsuit official but as per them, they keep the privacy of their users at utmost priority. Following which, they built end-to-end encryption for the app. This ensures that the messages, photos, documents, etc shared on WhatsApp don’t fall into the wrong hands.
ALSO READ:-India Needs Stricter Action as Whatsapp Privacy Policy Goes Live
Sources suggest that the Whatsapp has filed a cases against the Indian government in the Delhi High court. At the same time, they have also decided to move ahead with their implementation of their user privacy policy from May 15. They had stated that they will maintain the approach until the forthcoming Personal Data Protection law comes into effect. Under the new privacy policy of Whatsapp, some of the user information will be shared with Facebook. However, the messages would still be encrypted and won’t be shared. If the users fail to give their consent to the policy, they will be subjected to limited features on the app. But their accounts won’t be deleted.
Indian Government Asks Social Media Giants to Abide by IT Rules or Face Action
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology had earlier given the social media platforms three months to abide by the Information Technology (intermediary guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021. The deadline was by May 25 else they would be facing strict actions. As per the new rules, the social media platforms will have to remove any offensive content on the government’s direction within 36 hours. The new rules also mandate that the intermediaries must develop a grievance redressal mechanism for solving issues from their users.
