Whatsapp

The recent digital rules and internet regulations introduced by the Indian Government have ended up in social media giant Whatsapp filing a lawsuit. The internet rules brought in during late February this year states how the tech companies, digital media platforms, and other OTT platforms will be liable to comply with the new regulations and censorship demands. This new set of IT rules are called Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021.

Highlights of the New IT Rules

The recent digital regulations brought in by the Indian government mentions that it is curbing OTT and social media platforms to regulate the misuse of digital media and track the defaulters.

The rules state that important social media platforms that have a large amount of user base should identify the originator of a social media post or content and publishing offensive content can lead to imprisonment of up to 5 years. It also asks these social media platforms to appoint a Chief Compliance Officer, a Nodal Contact Person, and a Resident Grievance Officer within three months of publishing the rules in the gazette. These officials will act as an intermediary and coordinate between the digital platforms and the government. The platforms should publish a monthly compliance report and also take down offensive content within 36 hours of receiving complaints. OTT platforms have to classify content based on different age and censorship categories directed by the state.

Whatsapp vs Indian Government

The regulations put forward by the Indian government essentially demand social messaging platforms like Whatsapp, Telegram, etc to identify the originator of a piece of information. This would require Whatsapp messenger to break the end-to-end encryption which in turn is the infringement of privacy of the users. According to Livemint’s report, “ Whatsapp has filed a lawsuit in a Delhi court against the government to quash a provision of a new regulation that mandates companies to divulge the "first originator of information", arguing in favor of protecting privacy.” 

The 224-page long lawsuit argues that the new rules are unconstitutional and will have dangerous impacts on Whatsapp’s privacy policy. 

The regulation, said the Modi-led government, is aimed at curbing fake news, revenge porn, offensive citations, and other malicious use of social media and the internet. Social media platforms were given a period of three months to comply with the rules and it ended this week. While tech giants Facebook and Google fell in line with the regulations and agreed to its agreements. However, Whatsapp came up with strong criticisms and filed a petition in the Delhi High Court. 

The breaking of end-to-end encryption, as the government suggests Whatsapp to do, will harm the privacy of users. The concept here is known as traceability and breaking encryption would allow anybody to read any messages sent or received in the chats. The messages consist of an unencrypted header, which cannot be decrypted even by the social media platform itself. According to a blog post by Whatsapp, “ To comply, messaging services would have to keep giant databases of every message you send, or add a permanent identity stamp -- like a fingerprint -- to private messages with friends, family, colleagues, doctors, and businesses. Companies would be collecting more information about their users at a time when people want companies to have less information about them.”

Although the government stated that fingerprinting messages for traceability will not expose the content, Whatsapp claims that it still harms the privacy of users. The new set of IT rules would end up digitally controlling the citizens and further curtailing their freedom of speech and expression. Several reports suggest this act as a violation of human rights too as people might end up being wrongly accused of even sharing a screenshot or forwarding a piece of information.

Where is India Headed? 

This new step by the Indian government is said to be another version of the Chinese regulation that sprung up back in 2006. The IT rules are considered an attack on digital media platforms. With these new rules coming into force, social media platforms like Facebook will lose their intermediary status, and hence will be criminally responsible for any illegal or offensive content created on these platforms. As a cherry on the top comes the traceability order. 

With all these and the previous trials of the Modi government to curb internet freedom, India is now being widely compared to China and its similar severe restrictions. 

In 2006, China employed an internet censorship policy that monitors internet access and websites and restricts information. This along with severe curbing of the freedom of the press, provided a nickname to the policy, “Great Firewall of China”. 

It is believed that India is also gradually building a firewall of its own. This might lead to a confused state where the freedom of expression and press freedom will be highly injured in the name of curbing violence and fake news. In the coming years, India’s citizens might also fall under mass surveillance by the government. However, the battle between Whatsapp and the State will see light soon.