kumarvishwas
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Petition Filed in Supreme Court to Ban WhatsApp in India
End to end encryption in WhatsApp was activated in India which on one side gives security to the users content but on the other side looks like a threat to the Nation’s security. In our country, an encryption of 40 bits is considered to be legal and all those services implementing encryption of this limit have to register with the Government in this regard. On the other hand, WhatsApp enabled every message with 256 bits encryption which cannot be decrypted which is the main reason for the petition to be filed.
Sudhir Yadav, an RTI activist from Gurgaon has filed a petition in the Supreme Court for the complete ban on this most followed messaging platform WhatsApp. End to end encryption was mentioned as the main reason for the request on the ban because it has been giving a huge trouble to the world in battling against crime and terrorism and is the same issue that India has been facing since ages.
Recently, there was a battle between FBI and Apple on the same issue, WhatsApp is one of the most followed messenger application which is also encryption enabled. Although the facility lets the users be free from the information leakage and makes the conversations private, it becomes a threat when it comes to the nation’s security. The same was mentioned in the complaint filed by Sudhir and appealing for the total ban of WhatsApp messenger in the country.
Though he had first requested for the information on the WhatsApp encryption rules under RTI Act, he did not get any response and hence took this step of filing a complaint in the Supreme Court. Sudhir asked as per the RTI Request Registration Number DOTEL/R/2016/50413, “Kindly Provide me a copy of the written permission given to WhatsApp Mobile messaging app for using the 256-bit key length encryption (or more than 40 bit key lengths) in chatting application” where he got a reply in return saying, “No such Information exist in this office”.
According to his explanation, WhatsApp encryption could be harmful to the country’s security as the terrorists can easily use this platform to forward messages on making plans to harm India which cannot be decrypted by Police/ Intelligence departments. According to him, decrypting a single 256-bit encrypted message would take trillions of years that even WhatsApp will not be able to achieve.
There are other most followed messenger services like Hike, Viber, Secure Chat etc which fall under the same zone of high encryption and causes national threat. Before filing the petition to the SC, Sudhir has written letters to Ministry of Communications and TRAI but did not receive any reply in return.
Though the main reason behind filing the petition is the threat on Nation’s security, there are other means through which the terrorists can safely communicate. There are tools that can encrypt messages at higher levels like dark internet and bad hackers. So it can be said that banning these apps may not set the issue of terrorism but on the other hand, gives an additional boost to the dark internet. What will the Government decide on the issue? Does WhatsApp gets banned or will be given orders to cut down the encryption to the lower levels is what to be watched.
Petition Filed in Supreme Court to Ban WhatsApp in India – Check here for More Details – FitnHit.com
End to end encryption in WhatsApp was activated in India which on one side gives security to the users content but on the other side looks like a threat to the Nation’s security. In our country, an encryption of 40 bits is considered to be legal and all those services implementing encryption of this limit have to register with the Government in this regard. On the other hand, WhatsApp enabled every message with 256 bits encryption which cannot be decrypted which is the main reason for the petition to be filed.
Sudhir Yadav, an RTI activist from Gurgaon has filed a petition in the Supreme Court for the complete ban on this most followed messaging platform WhatsApp. End to end encryption was mentioned as the main reason for the request on the ban because it has been giving a huge trouble to the world in battling against crime and terrorism and is the same issue that India has been facing since ages.
Recently, there was a battle between FBI and Apple on the same issue, WhatsApp is one of the most followed messenger application which is also encryption enabled. Although the facility lets the users be free from the information leakage and makes the conversations private, it becomes a threat when it comes to the nation’s security. The same was mentioned in the complaint filed by Sudhir and appealing for the total ban of WhatsApp messenger in the country.
Though he had first requested for the information on the WhatsApp encryption rules under RTI Act, he did not get any response and hence took this step of filing a complaint in the Supreme Court. Sudhir asked as per the RTI Request Registration Number DOTEL/R/2016/50413, “Kindly Provide me a copy of the written permission given to WhatsApp Mobile messaging app for using the 256-bit key length encryption (or more than 40 bit key lengths) in chatting application” where he got a reply in return saying, “No such Information exist in this office”.
According to his explanation, WhatsApp encryption could be harmful to the country’s security as the terrorists can easily use this platform to forward messages on making plans to harm India which cannot be decrypted by Police/ Intelligence departments. According to him, decrypting a single 256-bit encrypted message would take trillions of years that even WhatsApp will not be able to achieve.
There are other most followed messenger services like Hike, Viber, Secure Chat etc which fall under the same zone of high encryption and causes national threat. Before filing the petition to the SC, Sudhir has written letters to Ministry of Communications and TRAI but did not receive any reply in return.
Though the main reason behind filing the petition is the threat on Nation’s security, there are other means through which the terrorists can safely communicate. There are tools that can encrypt messages at higher levels like dark internet and bad hackers. So it can be said that banning these apps may not set the issue of terrorism but on the other hand, gives an additional boost to the dark internet. What will the Government decide on the issue? Does WhatsApp gets banned or will be given orders to cut down the encryption to the lower levels is what to be watched.
Petition Filed in Supreme Court to Ban WhatsApp in India – Check here for More Details – FitnHit.com
