Supreme Court Rejects Petition to Ban WhatsApp Over IT Rules Compliance

New Delhi: On Thursday,  November 14, the Supreme Court rejected a petition that sought to ban WhatsApp, arguing that the messaging platform was not in compliance with the new Information Technology (IT) Rules.

The petition, filed by Omanakuttan KG, a software engineer, was dismissed by a bench consisting of Justices MM Sundresh and Aravind Kumar. The petitioner had previously approached the Kerala High Court with the same request, asking the central government to block WhatsApp if it did not adhere to government regulations.

It was in June 2021,  that the Kerala High Court had dismissed the petition as "premature," prompting the petitioner to take the matter to the Supreme Court.

The petitioner's primary concern was that WhatsApp allows manipulation at the user level, making it difficult to trace the origin of messages shared on the platform. The petition also claimed that the app's updated privacy policy, which mentions storing and using personal data such as battery levels, violates users' privacy rights. Furthermore, it was argued that while WhatsApp follows a different privacy policy in Europe to comply with local laws, it does not abide by Indian regulations, creating a significant discrepancy.

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