what is the debate

After this policy update, the IT department had to interfere and ordered the messaging app to take the policies down. However, WhatsApp came forward with an explanation stating that it does not intend to utilize the user data otherwise, rather than for customization purposes.

The matter has gained a lot of heat in the past few days, as WhatsApp has directly entered into a legal battle with the Government of India for permission over the privacy policy.

WhatsApp has filed a legal complaint against the government over the new IT Rules 2021, stating that these rules are a violation of privacy rights in India’s constitution and that the demand of the government to have the details of the original sender of a message will require WhatsApp to rework the end-to-end encryption for the platform

The government has straight away asked the social media and messenger apps to comply with new IT Rules as of 2021, which states, that if any messaging app or social media platform fails to comply with the new rules, they will lose the legal immunity protecting them from content shared on their platforms.

Further, the center told the Delhi High Court that it views the new privacy policy of WhatsApp as a violation of the Indian Information Technology (IT) law and rules, and sought directions to the social media platform to make it clear whether it was confirmed to the same.

Additionally, the government has again ordered WhatsApp to withdraw its new privacy policy.