Tech

Will WhatsApp Shut Down in India? IT Minister Confirms: ‘Company Has Not Informed

The Indian government has not received any notification from WhatsApp or its parent firm Meta about any plans to discontinue services in the nation, according to Information and Broadcasting Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw. In response to a query from Congressman Vivek Tankha regarding whether WhatsApp intended to stop operations in India as a result of government orders to share user data, the company provided a written statement to the Rajya Sabha.

The inquiry followed earlier remarks from WhatsApp in which the firm expressed worries about new IT regulations that it said may compromise end-to-end encryption. WhatsApp notified the Delhi High Court earlier this year that it will cease operations in India in the event that it was required to decrypt communications.

Tejas Karia, the attorney for WhatsApp, claimed that cracking the encryption would jeopardize user privacy, erode confidence, and require the long-term storage of millions of communications. WhatsApp and Meta have objected to the revised IT Rules, claiming that its provisions infringe upon their right to privacy.

The government gives directives under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act, 2000 to safeguard India’s sovereignty, integrity, defense, security, and public order, as stated by Ashwini Vaishnaw in his answer to Parliament.

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“WhatsApp or Meta has not notified the government about any such plans, according to [the] Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY),” Ashwini Vaishnaw stated. The company and its more than 400 million users may be greatly impacted by WhatsApp’s decision to leave India.