No ban on Whatsapp in India: Supreme Court

The Supreme Court of India thinks that banning Whatsapp is a preposterous proposition and has rejected the petition seeking the same. Keeping in mind the freedom of expression of the people, the court has thus directed the petitioner to approach the government.

A petition to ban Whatsapp in the country was filed by SudhirYadav, a Haryana-based right-to-information (RTI) activist some time back. The petition filed in the apex court was based on a reasoning that Whatsapp’s recent move to enable 256-bit encryption is virtually unbreakable posing serious risks to national security.

Though the Supreme Court has rejected his plea, he is, however, insistent that all messaging services including Whatsapp violate provisions of the Indian Telegraph Act, 1885, and Information Technology Act, 2000.

Other messaging platforms including Hike, Secure Chat, Viber among others are also under question as they are also highly encrypted and might pose a threat to the safety of the country.

Sudhir Yadav believes that encrypted messaging platforms provide easy channels to terrorists to plan and plot an attack. He also adds that that even if we try to decrypt an end-to-end encrypted message using supercomputers, it would take hundreds of years. Reminds me of Apple vs FBI tussle!

The Supreme Court has asked Yadav to approach the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT).