Indian Authorities Demand Access to WhatsApp User Messages

Indian authorities are pressuring WhatsApp, owned by Facebook since October 2014, to provide law enforcement with access to user messages. Officials believe that such access would help them combat crime more effectively.

According to Gopalakrishnan S. from India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, services like WhatsApp are used by criminals for illegal activities, including the distribution of child pornography. He stated that the only way to stop these crimes is to give law enforcement agencies access to messages.

“We are not interested in good morning wishes or messages about divorce. We only need the ability to track, detect, or prevent crimes,” Gopalakrishnan S. told Forbes.

WhatsApp messages are encrypted by default, preventing third parties from accessing their content. Facebook has already refused to provide third parties with access to user messages. Carl Woog, a WhatsApp spokesperson, emphasized that doing so would violate the core principles of the service’s administration.

“The new rules require the impossible, as we use end-to-end encryption. We would have to completely redesign WhatsApp’s architecture, and it would become a completely different product that would not ensure full privacy,” the spokesperson noted.

As previously reported by SecurityLab, the Indian government also plans to legally require Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter, and Google to remove illegal content within 24 hours of receiving a request. The companies would also be required to create “automated tools” for “actively identifying and removing” such materials.