WhatsApp Shutdown Rumors Debunked: India's IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnav Clarifies

A few months ago, the Delhi Highcourt had asked WhatsApp to break its end-to-end encryption feature, but WhatsApp clearly refused and said that if Meta was forced to do so, it would shut down its operations in India.

For the past few days, news about WhatsApp is being "highlighted" in India - according to the news, there is a possibility of WhatsApp being banned in India - is this matter a rumour or true? Just as this news spread in overall India, IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnav has answered it.

Is Meta Shutting Down Operations in India? Uncovering the Truth Behind the Speculation 

The question of shutting down WhatsApp in India is coming up in discussions when recently WhatsApp had expressed some concerns due to its IT rules in which meta company WhatsApp expressed the possibility of shutting down its most prominent feature End to End Encryption.

Information and Broadcasting Minister Ashwini Vaishnav, while replying to this, said in his latest statement that WhatsApp's parent company, Meta has not yet given any such information according to which it will close any of its services in India. Marked the Ministry, 

“Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has shared that WhatsApp or Meta has not informed the government about any such plans."

Ashwini Vaishnav gave his response in written from in the Rajya Sabha. He had to do so because a few days ago, Congress leader Vivek Tankha had expressed the expectation that WhatsApp was going to stop its services in India and had sought a response from the IB Ministry on this.

Meta Announces Potential India Shutdown in Delhi Court, if it is Forced....

Earlier also Meta had to face Delhi Court for its end to end encryption feature. When Meta was forced to break the end to end encryption feature due to a case in Delhi Court, but the parent company Meta took a strong stand on this and told Delhi Court straight forward that if Meta is forced to break his safety end to end feature then soon it will shut down its Operation in india. 

Delhi Court Claimed: Meta is violating 2021 Intermidiary Guidelines

The Indian government has repeatedly claimed that WhatsApp and other messaging apps need to allow them to trace the messages under the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules 2021 which is not possible when the chats are secure behind encryption and the keys are not accessible to anyone, including WhatsApp.

The Case claimed that Meta is Abolishing the Digital Media Ethics Code of Intermediary Guidelines of 2021. According to this Act of the Indian Government, it is mandatory for the IT department to trace the messages shared on every social platform, but this tracing is not possible due to the end to end encryption of WhatsApp