'Mandating a new form of mass surveillance': WhatsApp sues government, calls IT rules …

WhatsApp has filed a legal complaint against the Indian government seeking to block regulations of the new IT rules that come into force today, Reuters reported.The lawsuit asked the Delhi High Court to declare that one of the rules, which come under the the IT Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code Rules 2021, is a violation of privacy rights in India’s constitution as it asks social media companies to identify the “first originator of information” when authorities demand to know. The new rules could thus compel WhatsApp to break privacy protection.WhatsApp said that since messages are end-to-end encrypted, it would have to break encryption for receivers as well as originators of messages, even though the law required it to reveal only the people accused of wrongdoing. On an FAQ page on its website, WhatsApp said that traceability breaks end-to-end encryption and would “undermine the privacy” of people who communicate digitally. This could have a “chilling effect” on what people say and violate universally recognised principles of free expression and human rights, WhatsApp said.The company’s complaint cites the Supreme Court’s Puttaswamy judgement from 2017, where it upheld privacy as a fundamental right. WhatsApp’s lawsuit was filed as the 90-day period…
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