New IT rules | Govt dismisses WhatsApp's justification for evading norms, reiterates commitment to protect privacy

The Government of India has said that it recognises the right to privacy and is committed to ensuring the same for its citizens, while it awaits social media platforms to commit to its new guidelines.

The central government on May 26 reiterated that the said guidelines shall be passed only for the purposes of prevention, investigation, punishment.

This is when there is a violation of sovereignty, integrity and security of India, public order incitement to an offence relating to rape, sexually explicit material or child sexual abuse material punishable with imprisonment for not less than five years, the government said in a statement.

Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had stated that none of the measures proposed by India would impact the normal functioning of WhatsApp in any manner whatsoever and for the common users.

"It is in the public interest that who started the mischief leading to such crime must be detected and punished," the government said in a statement, adding that it cannot deny the connection that exists between cases of mob lynchings and riots and repeated circulation of messages on platforms like Whatsapp.

Addressing the Facebook-owned company's objection to its rules, the government has said that no specific objection was made in writing to the Government of India regarding the requirement to trace the first originator in relation to serious offences.

"Any operations being run in India are subject to the law of the land. WhatsApp’s refusal to comply with the guidelines is a clear act of defiance of a measure whose intent can certainly not be doubted," the statement reads.

As per the government the rules have been framed after consultation with various stakeholders and social media intermediaries, including but not limited to WhatsApp.

According to the government, Whatsapp is justifying its non-compliance by carving out an exception that messages on the platform are end-to-end encrypted.

However, the government has pointed out that the new rules are applicable to all social media intermediaries regardless of their operation methods.

On this, Prasad said that this entire debate on whether encryption would be maintained or not is misplaced. Whether Right to Privacy is ensured through using encryption technology or some other technology is entirely the purview of the social media intermediary.

"The Government of India is committed to ensuring Right of Privacy to all its citizens as well as have the means and the information necessary to ensure public order and maintain national security. It is WhatsApp’s responsibility to find a technical solution, whether through encryption or otherwise, that both happen," the minister noted.