EXCLUSIVE: WhatsApp tells Delhi HC that govt infringing on privacy of every Indian by forcing new IT laws

India Today has accessed the petition filed by WhatsApp in Delhi High Court against the new IT rules. It reveals that WhatsApp believes the rules will have a chilling impact on privacy and freedom of speech of Indian WhatsApp users.

It will be an understatement to say that WhatsApp is unhappy about certain IT rules that come into effect in India today. These are the rules that all “significant” social media companies, or in other words almost all big tech companies like Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter, Netflix, have to follow. WhatsApp on Wednesday challenged Rule 4(2) of the new IT Rules on the basis that it infringes upon the fundamental right to privacy. The company has filed a case in Delhi High Court. Now, India Today has exclusively accessed the petition and can reveal the parts of it that form the core of arguments made by WhatsApp. In its petition, WhatsApp says that the “IT Rules would force us to break end-to-end encryption on our messaging service and infringe upon the fundamental right to privacy and free speech of hundreds of millions of citizens using WhatsApp.”