Supreme Court rejects PIL seeking ban on Whatsapp

In his petition, Yadav said that terrorists and criminals could easily communicate on WhatsApp and make plans which are impossible to access even by supercomputers as decrypting a single 256-bit encrypted message would take hundreds of years.

In what could have been a blow to tech-savvy people, the Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed a plea seeking ban on WhatsApp and other communication applications on security grounds and claiming that these services violated the law.

Petitioner Sudhir Yadav said these messenger services violated the provisions of the Indian Telegraph Act, 1885, and Information Technology Act, 2000. Other than WhatsApp, the petitioner had also named over dozen other messaging platforms like Hike, Viber, Signal, Telegram and Secure chat.
In his petition, Yadav said that terrorists and criminals could easily communicate on WhatsApp and make plans which are impossible to access even by supercomputers as decrypting a single 256-bit encrypted message would take hundreds of years.

“Even if WhatsApp was asked to break through an individual’s message to hand over the data to the government, it too will fail as it does not have the decryption keys,” Yadav said in his petition.
WhatsApp had introduced end-to-end encryption with their updated version from April 2016.

The bench headed by Chief Justice T S Thakur and A M Khanwilkar, however, granted liberty to the petitioner to approach appropriate authority in the government with his grievances.
It said the petitioner could also approach Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) with his
plea.

 

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Supreme Court rejects PIL seeking ban on Whatsapp

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