Union minister Prashad tweeted, “Government fully recognizes and respects the right to privacy of the citizens. Ordinary users of Whatsapp have nothing to fear about the new rules.”
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The Union IT minister stated this during the time when the new IT rules are under controversy for violating the ‘right to privacy’ of social media users.
As per the new rules that came into effect earlier week, every social media company should have to appoint a chief compliance officer, resident grievance officer, and a nodal contact officer based in India.
According to the new IT rules, the instant messaging application Whatsapp would have to break its ‘end to end encryption’ rule. That means the messages would also be seen by the company staff.
On it, Whatsapp has already moved to the court, claiming that the rules are ‘unlawful’ and ‘violates the right to privacy.”
Union minister said, “Ordinary users of Whatsapp have nothing to fear about the new rules. Its entire objective is to find out who started the message that led to commissioning of specific crimes mentioned in the rules.”
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He further added that the government welcomes criticism and the right to ask questions.
The new Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules 2021, were announced on February 25. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY) had given a three-month deadline to all social media and OTT platforms to comply with the new IT Rules 2021. This three-month deadline would come to end on May 25.