WhatsApp, owned by Facebook, has moved legally against the Centre, seeking to nullify some of the provisions in the new social media regulations that come into force from today. According to an exclusive Reuters report, the lawsuit asks the Delhi High Court to declare that one of the new rules is a violation of privacy rights in India's Constitution since it requires social media companies to identify the "first originator of information" when authorities demand it. "Messages are end-to-end encrypted, to comply with the law WhatsApp says it would have break encryption for receivers, as well as "originators" of messages," according to the lawsuit, as reported by the news agency.
WhatsApp was specifically referring to a new clause in the new social media guidelines, which require significant social media intermediaries—providing services primarily in the nature of messaging—to enable identification of the "first originator" of the information that undermines sovereignty of India, security of the state, or public order. This could have major ramifications for players like Twitter and WhatsApp.
Non-compliance with rules would result in these social media companies losing their intermediary status that provides them exemptions and specified immunity from liabilities for any third-party information and data hosted by them. In other words, they could be liable for criminal action.
On February 25, the government had announced tighter regulations for social media firms, requiring them to remove any content flagged by authorities within 36 hours and setting up a robust complaint redressal mechanism with an officer being based in the country. Significant social media companies will have to publish a monthly compliance report disclosing details of complaints received and action taken, as also details of contents removed proactively. They will also be required to have a physical contact address in India published on its website or mobile app, or both.
The new rules require large social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp to follow additional due diligence, including the appointment of a chief compliance officer, nodal contact person and resident grievance officer. 'Significant social media intermediaries'—defined as those with over 50 lakh registered users—were given three months to comply with the additional requirements.
Both Facebook and Google had noted that they were working to implement operational processes and aims to comply with the provisions of the IT rules. Notably, Twitter has not commented on its compliance status.
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