SC dismisses plea seeking ban on WhatsApp Messenger
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed a petition seeking ban on WhatsApp Messenger.
The plea was filed a Haryana-based right-to-information (RTI) activist.
The petitioner has sought ban on WhatsApp and other such apps citing security concerns.
According to the petitioner, the petition not only concerns Whatsapp but bundles every messaging platform i.e. Hike, Viber, Secure chat and so on.
“Even if WhatsApp was asked to break through an individual’s message to hand over the data to the government, it too would fail as it does not have the decryption keys either,” the petitioner said.
Yadav even added that terrorists and criminals can easily chat on WhatsApp and make plans which are impossible to access even by supercomputers as decrypting a single 256-bit encrypted message would take hundreds of years.
The apex court has asked the petitioner to approach Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT).
In an earlier update, WhatsApp has made a 256-bit encryption that is impossible to break, featuring the militants a safe an easy platform to communicate.