After months of trying to have WhatsApp reverse some of its policies by sharing some data with its parent platform, Facebook, the Indian government decided to give Facebook a taste of its own medicine.
Facebook is not taking it well, to say the least, WhatsApp has now filed a lawsuit in Delhi against the Indian government seeking to block regulations that experts believe will require Facebook to share its coveted data possibly with the government, and will undoubtedly break through WhatsApp end-to-end encryption promise.
The lawsuit states that the new regulation is a violation of privacy rights in India’s constitution by identifying the first originator of information. Prior to now, India and some other countries have petitioned for WhatsApp to revise its privacy update laws to suit that in the EU. A petition that fell on deaf ears hitherto.
WhatsApp is not the only one in the boat as Google and Twitter all share a similar fate, as a social media platform with over 5000 users.. Police officers ven visited Twitter offices this week
It is not too strange where the Indian Government’s decision comes from considering the advent of fake news that has taken social media platforms by storm, the move will drive accountability, however, there is also the potential for government abuse where law enforcement may unnecessarily clamp down on free speech.
When it comes to privacy and data, for social media giants, it remains an unending battle