Whatsapp has submitted before the Supreme Court that it will not be possible to remove the contents as they have an end-to-end encryption technology.

Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal made this submission before the Apex Court when it was discussing the suggestions given by Union of India to curb child pornography, rape and gang rape videos.

The Centre had suggested following actions to be taken by ‘intermediaries’ like Google, Whatsapp, and Facebook etc.



Setup proactive monitoring tools for auto deletion of unlawful content b deploying Artificial intelligence based tools



Deployment of trusted flaggers for identifying and deletion of unlawful content



Setting up of 24X7 mechanisms for dealing with requisitions of law enforcement agencies.



Appointment of India based contact officer and escalation officers (with name, designation, email, mobile number



Prompt disposal of requisitions of Law Enforcement Agencies to remove unlawful contents.



The bench comprising Justice Madan B. Lokur and Justice Uday Umesh Lalit observed: “it appears that each of the different entities have a different reaction to them. Google and YouTube have one reaction. Facebook, Microsoft and Whatsapp each have different reactions… Everybody is agreed that the child pornography, rape and gang rape videos and objectionable material need to be stamped out.”

It then directed the entities to give a proposed/draft SOP for the purpose of implementation of the suggestions given by Union of India.

The bench also ordered that the amount deposited in the Registry with accrued interest be disbursed for victims of Gaja cyclone to the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund, Tamil Nadu.

The Supreme Court was hearing a suo motu PIL registered on the basis of a letter from NGO-Prajwala to the effect that videos of sexual violence were being circulated in abundance via internet and Whatsapp.

During the last hearing, the centre had informed the Apex court that it has launched a Cyber crime portal www.cybercrime.gov.in. The central government also made submissions regarding some other developments in compliance of earlier order of the court. They are: