A rather interesting report emerged that WhatsApp might have left its most important market. Sound confusing? Let me explain. Based on a Livemint report, WhatsApp has told the Delhi High Court that it will leave India if it is forced to end encryption.
WhatsApp could choose to leave its most important market because of a new law
WhatsApp said the following: “As a platform, we’re saying (that) if we’re told to stop encrypting, WhatsApp goes away.” The company added that one of the main reasons for using WhatsApp is privacy, and end-to-end encryption is one of the pillars of privacy. Removing this option would destroy WhatsApp’s trust in its users.
Why did it even come to this? Well, due to a new law in India. Regulation 4(2) of the Technology Regulations 2021 states that “significant” social media intermediaries (with more than 5 million registered users) must be able to identify the first sender of any information on their platform if requested by a person. court or other competent authority. Said information includes texts, photos, videos and so on, Livemint reports.
There are other issues to consider besides the privacy aspect
In addition to the privacy aspect, WhatsApp also argued that complying with this rule would require the company to store many messages for a longer period of time. This is something that no country is empowered to do, WhatsApp added.
The company also added that the provision essentially goes beyond the scope of its parent law, which does not mandate the end of encryption. WhatsApp also confirmed to the court that no other country has made such a request regarding privacy/encryption.
On the other hand, the court argued that there must be a way to trace the senders of the messages because of the liability involved. The entire case is now adjourned till August 14, when it will be mixed with more than a dozen other cases challenging various parts of the IT rules.
WhatsApp has a huge number of users in India, more than half a billion
Now you may ask why India WhatsApp the most important market? India has by far the largest number of WhatsApp users. Based on the information provided by Statistics, in 2024, more than 2.78 billion users worldwide use WhatsApp.
Of this number, 535.8 million users are in India. Brazil is close behind with 148 million users, while Indonesia is third with 112 million. USA if fifth with 98 million users etc.
The point is that India is the number one market for WhatsApp so far. If the app shuts down in India, the company will lose more than half a billion users.
