WhatsApp shut down in India: IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw says 'the company has not…'

IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has said that WhatsApp and its parent company Meta have not informed the government of any plans to shut down its services in India. He was replying to a question raised in the Rajya Sabha on Friday (July 26).

“[The] Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has shared that WhatsApp or Meta has not informed the government about any such plans,” Vaishnaw said in a written reply to a question by Congress member Vivek Tankha , as per PTI report.

Tankha had asked whether WhatsApp was planning to shut its services in India due to the government's directives to share user details in accordance with the government directions under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act, 2000.

Responding to Tankha's question on curbs on social media platforms, the I&B minister said the central government issued directions in the interest of the sovereignty or integrity of India, defence of India, security of the state, friendly relations with foreign states or public order or for preventing incitement to the commission of any cognisable offence relating to above in respect of the information on a computer resource.

Earlier this year, WhatsApp told the Delhi High Court that it will stop functioning in India if it is compelled by the government to break encryption of messages.

“People use WhatsApp because…”
WhatsApp challenged the newly amended IT Rules saying that they violate the right to privacy and were unconstitutional. WhatsApp told the Delhi High Court that its end-to-end encryption protects user privacy by ensuring only the sender and recipient can access message content.

“As a platform, we are saying, if we are told to break encryption, then WhatsApp goes,” Tejas Karia, appearing for Whatsapp, told a Division Bench. He added that people use WhatsApp because of the privacy features that it offers.

“India (is) a country that’s at the forefront... You’re leading the world in terms of how people and businesses have embraced messaging,” Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg had said in a virtual address at Meta’s annual event last year.

WhatsApp has more than 400 million users in India, making it the largest market for the platform.