The Delhi High Court on Friday directed the Centre to respond to Facebook and WhatsApp’s challenges to new IT regulations for social media intermediaries that require the messaging app to “track” talks and create measures to identify the information’s initial source. The new limits are called into question on the basis that they are unlawful and that they violate the right to privacy.
A bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh issued the notice, directing the Centre to file a response to the petition and an application to stop the Rules’ implementation through the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology. The case has been rescheduled for a hearing on October 22.
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Senior lawyers Harish Salve and Mukul Rohatgi, representing WhatsApp and Facebook, respectively, rejected the Centre’s request for an adjournment, claiming that the principal advocate was unavailable.
The need for intermediaries to allow the identity, by government or court order, of the originating source of information in India, in accordance with WhatsApp, puts the encryption at risk and the advantages. WhatsApp has requested the High Court to decry unconstitutional, extra vires IT Act Rule 4(2) of the intermediary rules, and unlawful, and to exclude it from criminal punishment for any claimed non-compliance with Rule 4(2), which requires the initial source of information to be identified.
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