Centre advises WhatsApp to use alpha-numeric hash to trace messages without breaking encryption

To enable WhatsApp to trace the first originator of a message, the government has proposed that the Facebook-owned app assign an alpha-numeric hash to every message sent via the platform.

In case of unlawful activity, the originator of the message can be traced via the alpha-numeric hash without breaking the app's end-to-end encryption, senior government officials told Economic Times.

"The government is willing to work with WhatsApp to come up with a solution to enable traceability of message originators without breaking encryption," officials added.

Read | New IT rules: Social media majors will now have to follow these strict guidelines

On February 25, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) notified the Guidelines for Intermediaries and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021. It outlined key rules social media companies, digital media, and OTT platforms like Amazon Prime and Netflix need to follow.

One of the rules mandates significant social media intermediaries such as WhatsApp to enable traceability of the first originator of a message.

This is particularly concerning for messaging apps like WhatsApp, Signal, and Telegram that retain minimal user data and use end-to-end encryption to provide privacy to users.

WhatsApp, one of the most popular messaging app in India with over 400 million users, has so far resisted the Centre's demand to trace the origin of messages citing privacy norms.

"The discussions are currently ongoing, WhatsApp has not formally communicated its position so far," an official told the newspaper.

The new guidelines followed the government's spat with Twitter over allegedly inflammatory tweets and hashtags supporting farmer protests, with the microblogging service initially refusing to comply with orders to take down about 1,500 such posts and accounts. Twitter complied after it was threatened with the penal action.

As per the new rule, social media companies also have had to remove content flagged by the government or court orders within 36 hours and take down posts depicting nudity or morphed photos within 24 hours of receiving a complaint.