SC junks PIL raising security concerns of communications through Whatsapp, Telegram

NEW DELHI — The Supreme Court on Thursday refused to entertain a public interest litigation (PIL) raising concerns about the privacy, integrity, and security of communications through messaging services WhatsApp and Telegram.

A bench of Justices M.M. Sundresh and Aravind Kumar dismissed the PIL filed by K.G. Omanakuttan, who claims to be “a seasoned software engineer”.

The plea highlighted a “vulnerability” found in the Android applications of WhatsApp and Telegram, which allows the unauthorised replacement of media files. It added that privacy, integrity, and security of communications through WhatsApp and Telegram can be breached, even by a common man and one can easily replace an image file in their chat with another image file, locally on an Android device.

The PIL said that vulnerability in the Android applications violated several fundamental rights, including the right to privacy, right to freedom of expression, right to reputation and dignity, and right to fair investigation and trial, by unauthorised replacement of media files locally.

The petitioner sought direction to WhatsApp and Telegram to adopt comprehensive and effective measures to prevent the unauthorised manipulation of media files on Android devices.

Earlier in 2021, the Kerala High Court had dismissed a plea filed by the same petitioner against the technical vulnerability which enables even a common man to replace images and other media files within a WhatsApp chat. The plea had also sought a direction to WhatsApp to comply with the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 in the interest of the nation. The Mark Zuckerberg-owned platform had moved the Delhi High Court, challenging the IT rules on the grounds that they violate the right to privacy and are unconstitutional. WhatsApp claimed that rules forced it to ‘track’ the origin of messages received through the network and jeopardised the privacy of its users. The IT rules made it mandatory for social media intermediaries like Twitter (now X), Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp to trace chats and make provisions to identify the first originator of the information.