After WhatsApp turned on end-to-end encryption (E2E) to secure the privacy of their one billion active users, debates over user’s privacy vs the country’s security immediately germinated. WhatsApp’s decision on the 256-bit encryption came after the FBI-Apple battle over seeking messages from the locked iPhone of an alleged terrorist. Though encrypting messages may be an excellent option where hackers and the government cannot track on the user’s private lives, this makes a tremendous issue when the police have to break into messages that are passed on using this way to protect its citizens. Following the enabling of WhatsApp encryption, many activists around the world claimed it as a potential threat to National security. In India, an encryption of up to 40-bit is considered legal and services that are performing this type of encryption have to register with the government. Those who are using higher encryption are presently in the gray area, and so is the case with WhatsApp. Hence, indirectly, WhatsApp is presently illegal in India, but there are no guidelines as yet in the country which can ban them for now.
Earlier last month, an RTI activist from Gurgaon, Sudhir Yadav, had filed a petition in the Supreme Court seeking a complete ban on the messaging platform WhatsApp. The RTI petition was filed under the registration number DOTEL/R/2016/50413. Sudhir wants a ban on WhatsApp because they have decided to encrypt all messages that get exchanged on the platform. He also said that any terrorist can safely chat on WhatsApp and make plans to harm the country and the Indian intelligence agencies would not be able to hit them to take necessary actions. The Supreme Court will hear a petition on June 29— seeking a ban on WhatsApp on the ground that the messaging app’s E2E encryption could pose a threat to the country’s security—as it gives terrorists a means of easy communication and that it is impossible to stop by the government and security agencies.
Other than WhatsApp, the petition has also asked the court to take a decision on other highly encrypted messaging services such as Hike, Secure Chat, Viber and a few others. The Supreme Court will hear the petition on June 29, which will decide the future of WhatsApp and a few other messaging platforms in India. Will WhatsApp be banned? Should WhatsApp be banned? Come June 29, we shall hear what the Supreme Court has to command.
