WhatsApp sues Indian government over
WhatsApp has sued the Indian government over new regulations in India that could allow authorities to make people’s private messages “traceable,” and conduct mass surveillance.
The Facebook-owned instant messaging service, which identifies India as its biggest market by users, said it filed the lawsuit in the High Court of Delhi on Wednesday. It said New Delhi’s “traceability” requirement — which would require WhatsApp to help New Delhi identify the originator of a particular message — violated citizens’ constitutional right to privacy.
“Civil society and technical experts around the world have consistently argued that a requirement to ‘trace’ private messages would break end-to-end encryption and lead to real abuse. WhatsApp is committed to protecting the privacy of people’s personal messages and we will continue to do all we can within the laws of India to do so,” WhatsApp said in a statement.
