WhatsApp filed a lawsuit against the Indian government over the new IT Rules 2021 stating that the rules will compel the messaging platform to break privacy protections, Reuters reported earlier today. The filing comes a day after the deadline to comply with the new rules passed. Download a copy of WhatsApp's petition here. A WhatsApp spokesperson confirmed this news with MediaNama saying that traceability “fundamentally undermines people’s right to privacy." Traceability mandate will break end-to-end encryption In the lawsuit filed by WhatsApp in the Delhi High Court, the platform said that one of the provisions of the new rules is a violation of the privacy rights guaranteed by the Indian constitution. The provision in question is the traceability mandate which requires a significant social media intermediary providing services primarily in the nature of messaging to enable the identification of the first originator of a message, people familiar with the lawsuit told Reuters. While the rules require platforms to only provide this information for people credibly accused of wrongdoing, WhatsApp says that this cannot be done for specific people and it would have to break end-to-end encryption for both receivers and originators of a message in order to comply with the law, the report stated. Rules will fail Puttuswamy test "Although WhatsApp has received considerable flack over its own policies, the court should be supporting the lawsuit of the company because 1) Privacy is sacrosanct after the judgment of Justice Puttaswamy case of 2017, 2) There is no statute in place which defines the boundaries of…
