WhatsApp has recently filed a lawsuit against the Indian government, due to the IT rules and regulations that are recently framed by the Indian government.
WhatsApp filed its petition in the Delhi High Court and claimed that the rules and regulations that are implemented by the central government of India are violating the privacy of WhatsApp users.
We have responded to the Government of India’s letter and assured them that the privacy of users remains our highest priority,” the company said in a statement on Monday.
“We will not limit the functionality of how WhatsApp works in the coming weeks. Instead, we will continue to remind users from time to time about the update,” the WhatsApp statement said.
Here to defend the government, the Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY), Ravi Shankar Prasad affirmed the following statement:-
“The India govt. is obliged to guarantee the Right of Privacy to all its citizens; but at the same time, it’s also the liability of the Indian govt. to maintain the law and order and ensure national security.”
Further, Ravi Shankar Prasad added that the implemented rules will not impact the normal functioning of WhatsApp, as it will remain the same, and work for every user as it’s working right now.
The Argument of Govt.
The rules that are implemented by the Indian govt. were already notified to WhatsApp on February 25, 2021, and they came into effect from 26th of May, 2021. But, according to WhatsApp among all these rules, one of the rules violates the privacy rights of its users, and here it’s:-
- The first originator of the information.
However, in defense, the government of India pronounced that, the disclosure of this information will help the law and order to prevent crimes, lead proper investigations against crimes, punishing the criminals, maintain the security of the country and its citizens.
Not only that even MeitY claimed that after a long and brief discussion with several social media delegates, and stakeholders the govt. of India has taken this decision and framed these rules.
Here, the most interesting thing is that recently when WhatsApp framed its new policy, at that time govt. blamed WhatsApp for compromising the privacy of users, while now WhatsApp itself was blaming the government for the same.
But, the Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY) asserted that the refusal of WhatsApp to comply with the newly framed IT rules will be a clear act of defiance against the Indian government.
Government of India Challenges
Moreover, to challenge the claims of WhatsApp, the MeitY explained that the countries like the US, the UK, New Zealand, Canada, and Australia have also framed strict IT rules and regulation, in which they mentioned that with appropriate legal authority for government proceedings they are bound to comply with guidelines.
So, as compared to that, the Indian govt. has established much less strict rules on WhatsApp and other social network platforms like Facebook, and Twitter.
That’s why the Central Govt. has already confirmed to all the social network companies that May 26, 2021, will be the deadline for everyone to comply with these new guidelines.
Apart from this Facebook has already confirmed that they agree to comply by stating, they respect the new rules. While in the case of Twitter, they have sought some time from the govt. and refused to comment further.
