NEW DELHI — WhatsApp has sued the Indian government challenging the second largest Internet market’s new regulations that could allow authorities to make people’s private messages “traceable,” and conduct mass surveillance.

The Facebook-owned instant messaging service, which identifies India as its biggest market by users, said it filed the lawsuit in the High Court of Delhi on Wednesday.

It said New Delhi’s “traceability” requirement — which would require WhatsApp to help New Delhi identify the originator of a particular message — violated citizens’ constitutional right to privacy.

“Civil society and technical experts around the world have consistently argued that a requirement to ‘trace’ private messages would break end-to-end encryption and lead to real abuse. WhatsApp is committed to protecting the privacy of people’s personal messages and we will continue to do all we can within the laws of India to do so,” WhatsApp said in a statement.

India first proposed WhatsApp to make software changes to make the originator of a message traceable in 2018. The suggestion came at a time when WhatsApp was grappling with containing spread of false information in India, where circulation of such information had resulted in multiple real-life casualties.

But its suggestion didn’t become the law until this year. Traceability requirement is part of New Delhi’s sweeping IT rules that also require social media firms to appoint several officers in India to address on-ground concerns, and also gives authorities greater power over taking down posts it deems offensive.

“Technology and privacy experts have determined that traceability breaks end-to-end encryption and would severely undermine the privacy of billions of people who communicate digitally.

“Reasonable and proportionate regulations for an increasingly digital world are important, but eroding privacy for everyone, violating human rights, and putting innocent people at risk is not the solution.

“WhatsApp is committed to doing all we can to protect the privacy of people’s personal messages, which is why we join others in opposing traceability,” the messaging platform, used by over 2 billion users worldwide, said in a blog post.

The Indian government gave large social media firms three months to comply with the new IT rules. Wednesday is the deadline for firms, including Facebook, to comply with the new regulation. Failure to do so may take away the safe harbor protection tech companies enjoy.

WhatsApp’s move on Wednesday is highly unusual. Facebook has engaged closely with New Delhi over the years — to a point where allegations were made that it didn’t take action on some politicians’ objectionable posts because it feared it would hurt its business in India, the world’s second largest Internet market.

“We have never seen a company sue the Indian government for asking for information.” said Jayanth Kolla, chief analyst at consultancy firm Convergence Catalyst. “We have seen companies push back, but they have never explored legal options in the past.”

WhatsApp is already fighting a legal case filed by the India government, in the same aforementioned court, over its new privacy policy as New Delhi tries to get the Facebook-owned firm to withdraw the new terms.

Last year India banned over 200 Chinese apps, including TikTok, which at the time of blocking identified India as its biggest overseas market. India said it was banning the apps because they posed threat to national security and defense of India.

India’s IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad cited similar national concerns when he unveiled the revised IT rules in February this year.

Tension has been brewing between American technology giants and the Indian government over the past few months. Earlier this year, Twitter refused to block accounts that criticized New Delhi and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Last month, the Indian government ordered Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to take down posts that were critical of Modi’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

Last week, New Delhi objected to Twitter’s labeling of some of its politicians’ tweets as manipulated media. Earlier this week, police in Delhi visited Twitter offices to “serve a notice.”

Used by over 2 billion users, WhatsApp has been sharing some information with parent firm Facebook since 2016. The company, which hasn’t substantially updated its terms of service since, said last year that it will be making some changes to share a set of personal data about users such as their phone number and location with Facebook.

Through an in-app alert earlier this year, WhatsApp asked users to share their consent for the new terms in January, which prompted an immediate backlash from some users. Following the backlash — which saw tens of millions of users explore competing services such as Signal and Telegram — WhatsApp said it will give users three additional months to review its new policy.

(On a side note, Signal mobile apps had crossed 100 million monthly active users in February, according to a popular mobile insight firm.)

Messaging app WhatsApp on Monday apprised the government of India that its recent update does not change the privacy of people's personal messages. "We have responded to the government of India's letter and assured them that the privacy of users remains our highest priority.

“As a reminder, the recent update does not change the privacy of people's personal messages. Its purpose is to provide additional information about how people can interact with businesses if they choose to do so," said a WhatsApp spokesperson.

The messaging app clarified that it will not limit the functionality of services and would continue to remind users from time to time about the updates.

"We will not limit the functionality of how WhatsApp works in the coming weeks. Instead, we will continue to remind users from time to time about the update as well as when people choose to use relevant optional features, like communicating with a business that is receiving support from Facebook," the spokesperson said.

"We hope this approach reinforces the choice that all users have whether or not they want to interact with a business. We will maintain this approach until at least the forthcoming PDP law comes into effect," he added. — Agencies