WhatsApp And Its Parent Have Not Informed Of Any India Exit Plan: Ashwini Vaishnaw

WhatsApp and its parent company Meta have not informed the government of any plans to shut down their services in India, I&B Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has told the Rajya Sabha.

“The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has shared that WhatsApp or Meta has not informed the government about any such plans,” Vaishnaw told the Rajya Sabha in a written reply.

Further, responding to inquiries on blocking of YouTube channels in India, the minister said that the Centre had issued directions under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act, 2000, for blocking channels in the interest of India’s sovereignty, defence, state security, friendly relations with foreign states, or public order. These measures aim to prevent incitement to any cognisable offence related to these concerns.

During its ongoing legal dispute with the Indian government, Meta-owned messaging platform WhatsApp informed the Delhi High Court in April that it would end its operations in India if compelled to break its message encryption. 

WhatsApp counsel made the assertion during a hearing on the platform’s plea challenging a provision of IT Rules, 2021 for social media intermediaries, which requires them to identify the first originator of information to a court or other competent authority.

It is important to note that major tech companies such as Meta, Google, and Microsoft are facing regulatory scrutiny in various cases across India. From January to June last year, Indian authorities issued a total of 70,612 content take-down requests across all Meta platforms. Of these, 63,586 were legal process requests, while the remaining were classified as ‘emergency disclosure requests’.