Messaging apps have a new reason to worry

New Delhi: Messaging apps, including Facebook Inc.-owned WhatsApp, will have to comply with India’s demand to trace the origin of contentious messages, said a senior government official, pointing out that the rules have been notified under a legal framework.WhatsApp, which has been opposing Centre’s demand for traceability citing the inviolability of its privacy policy, is yet to “ formally” communicate its position, the official said.Reiterating India’s demand for metadata of the first originator, the official said messaging apps do not need to break encryption “to provide such traceability” and that “it is very much possible”. Stating that India has adopted a “posture of compliance”, the official said, “intent is not to use it (metadata of originators) frivolously and only in cases of serious crimes...”Emails to WhatsApp were not answered until publishing of this story.WhatsApp has maintained that it hopes to find a solution to address the Indian government’s traceability concerns without breaking end-to-end encryption.Speaking on a podcast last week, WhatsApp chief Will Cathcart said the company was still studying the new regulations, which were notified on Feb. 25, but will resist breaking encryption. Cathcart told the BigTechnology podcast by US journalist Alex Kantrowitz: “We’ve been willing to make some really hard calls to defend encryption. If you’re talking about breaking encryption, it’s really hard for me to imagine being comfortable with it.”WhatsApp has about 400 million users in India. The messaging app has three months to comply with the February notification as it is considered a “significant social media intermediary”—those with over five million users in India.Pointing out that the company has been fighting court cases in India over encryption, Cathcart said, “We’ve explained why we have concerns about it, we’ll stand up and continue to explain those concerns. Our hope is that we can find a way to end up with solutions that don’t touch encryption,” he said. The idea of traceability, he said, largely comes due to “concerns over misinformation”.India is not alone in asking WhatsApp to provide information about specific messages.“The UK government has also said today that you cannot do end-to-end encryption. Internationally, a view is emerging that these platforms have to support the government in discharging its sovereign function,” said the official cited above.The Centre had placed the intermediary rules in the public domain for an extended period of time, seeking views of all stakeholders.WhatsApp may be working on a solution on how to enable the provision without breaking encryption, officials said, as the government has not received any formal communication from WhatsApp indicating that it will not follow the mandate.Messaging app users have welcomed the new regulations, officials claimed, specifically women users. “These platforms have to be safe first and fit for the users, they have to help the government in case of unlawful activities. They are not onerous at all.”Privacy ConcernsPrivacy experts have said that the Centre’s mandate seeking traceability of messages is against individual privacy and freedom of expression. If WhatsApp agrees to such a demand in one country, it will have to comply with similar requests from other nations too, they said.Last month, the ministry of electronics and IT (Meity) notified that the social media platforms with over five million users in India will be considered as “significant social media intermediaries”, including large platforms such as WhatsApp, Facebook and Twitter.Also Read: Big Tech fears steeper tax bills with India's new social media rulesThese platforms will be required to appoint a chief compliance officer, resident in India, to ensure compliance with the rules, a nodal person of contact for 24x7 coordination with law enforcement agencies along with a “resident grievance officer”. They will also have to set up automated tools to weed out content related to rape and child abuse among others apart from tracing the originator of the flagged messages. Significant social media intermediaries will be given an additional three months’ time to adhere to the rules, the government said.

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