WhatsApp threatens to cease operations in India over encryption dispute

NEW DELHI: Meta-owned WhatsApp informed the Delhi high court that it would cease operations in India and exit the country if compelled to compromise its end-to-end encryption.

Addressing the court during the hearing of WhatsApp's 2021 petitions challenging a provision of the 2021 Information Technology Rules for social media intermediaries, the company’s lawyer, Tejas Karia said: “As a platform, we are saying, if we are told to break encryption, then WhatsApp goes.”

The contentious provision in question requires social media intermediaries to identify the first originator of information, posing a significant challenge to WhatsApp’s encryption model.

Karia explained, “People use WhatsApp only because of its encryption. Now by implementing this rule, we will have to break the encryption.”

“There are two rights. One is privacy. At the same time, the government has a right to know. We are caught in between,” Karia further stated.

Karia stressed on the significance of end-to-end encryption as a fundamental safeguard for user privacy.