THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: WhatsApp India on Wednesday said it was not responsible for the data stored in the messaging app’s servers located outside the country.
The app’s submission came in a counter-affidavit it filed before the additional chief judicial magistrate court in Thiruvananthapuram over a contempt notice. The app was served for its failure in providing cyber police officials the account details of a person who uploaded the obscene videos of a woman hailing from Kilimanoor on the app.
The court had summoned Krishna Mohan Chaudhary, the representative of WhatsApp India, to appear in person. However, he was represented by his lawyer, who informed the court that WhatsApp India was not responsible for the data stored in its servers abroad. He said while WhatsApp India does not have authority over the app, it can guide investigators on how to retrieve the data through the proper channel.
Prosecutor Praveen Kumar V P argued that WhatsApp could not stonewall the request to share data citing the protection of privacy. He said the firm could not eschew responsibility of providing legally sought data.
By infringing Indian rules, it could not operate in the country, Praveen said. The court will consider the case on February 17.
Cops’ request for WA account details denied
The probe had revealed that the obscene videos were first shared via WhatsApp, following which the investigators, under Section 4(2) of the amended IT Act, sought details like the mobile number/IP address of the perpetrator’s WhatsApp account. However, WhatsApp reportedly did not comply citing end-to-end encryption. Following this, the India representative of the Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta-owned firm was summoned. The investigators had also sought the registration and login details besides information about the device used by the account owner.
In a similar case, the police had, via a court order, sought information from Facebook, also owned by Meta, earlier, but to no avail. The police later moved court seeking to issue a contempt notice against the tech giant.