The Indian government has suggested that WhatsApp allocate alpha-numeric hash to every message sent through its platform as a solution to alleviate the problem of tracking in the messaging app. The hash can go with the message and in the event of something illegal, the originator of the message can be traced without violating the encryption of the application, sources said. “The government is committed to working with WhatsApp to find a solution to make it easier to track the founders of the messages without violating privacy,” said officials.
In February, the Centre informed the Information Technology (Guidelines for Intermediaries and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 authorizing the tracking of the first developer of a message flagged by a court of law or a government agency.
Facebook-owned WhatsApp, which counts India as its largest market with more than 400 million users, has so far opposed the need to follow the source of flagged messages that show the failure of its privacy practices while also highlighting its inability to track technology due to lack of technology. However, the government remains firm in its demands to comply with what it calls “law and order”. “Discussions are ongoing at the moment, WhatsApp has not officially announced its status so far,” the official quoted above. The messaging app has three months to comply with the February announcement as it is considered the “most important social media link” with more than five million users in India.
San Francisco’s main messaging platform has argued that billions of messages are sent from its platform every minute, making it difficult to keep or track them. On the other hand, the government does not require WhatsApp to keep the entire message but only hash to get it back in the event of a legal and regulatory situation, officials said. “You can’t use such a big platform and not respond to it. Even if the dignity of one woman is not respected, they must help catch the perpetrators,” sources said. We point out that IT law contains a clause that requires companies to remove text messaging as and when ordered by the government, a senior official said, “the government has never used that clause, until now.”
“Senior social mediators must also provide voluntary confirmation to users, appoint head complaints and law enforcement officials in India, and set up automated tools to filter out abusive content targeted at children and women”, said officials.
Earlier this month, while speaking in a podcast, WhatsApp chief Will Cathcart had said that the company hopes to find a solution to address the Indian government’s compliance concerns without violating end-to-end encryption.
Moreover, IIT Madras Professor V Kamakoti, a member of the National Security Advisory Board, had offered several solutions to allow for follow-up without violating the end-to-end encryption in his presentation in the Madras High Court in 2019. He had previously told that WhatsApp could use options such as marking the developer’s phone number and message and displaying it regularly. He said this would not require WhatsApp to read messages at any time, thus keeping its encryption in place and avoiding violations of privacy rights. In other words, “the details of the founders can always be recorded and if they receive a court order, they can write and provide details,” Kamakoti said.
