IT rules

WhatsApp in its plea claims that traceability clause breaks end-to-end encryption and the privacy principles underlying it, and impermissibly infringes upon users’ fundamental rights to privacy and freedom of speech.

The Delhi High Court bench issued a notice in the petition by an Advocate, who is affected by the said Rules. The matter is slated for September 13’ 2021.

The micro-blogging platform’s refusal to conform to amended IT rules led the centre to approach the Delhi High Court, which pulled it up. The company has now asked for more time to comply with the rules.

In accordance with new IT rules, Twitter has appointed Vinay Prakash as its resident grievance officer and provided an email contact id on its website.

Twitter has sought eight weeks time from Delhi High Court to appoint regular resident grievance redressal officers under the IT Rules. The social media giant has filed an affidavit in response to a pending plea challenging the non-compliance of IT rules.

Twitter admittedly qualifies as a significant Social Media Intermediary (“SSMI”) as defined under Rule 2(1) (v) of the IT Rules 2021 hence Twitter is obligated to comply with the provisions of the IT Rules, 2021 and the compliances set out therein

With social media giant WhatsApp legally challenging the new IT rules, which mandates message tracing, the stage is set for an unseemly battle which could affect its huge base of subscribers.

The intermediary notably is expected to initiate two-faced actions in as much as to firstly remove and not publish any content, regarding which it has been notified by the government and secondly, are expected to disable the access to such content within 36 hours.

WhatsApp has filed a lawsuit against the Government of India in Delhi High Court seeking to block regulations of recently imposed IT rules that would require messaging service to trace the origin of a particular message sent on the service. The deadline to implement the new rules ended yesterday.

The court has now tagged matter with other petitions with similar prayers and listed them for hearing on April 16.