New Delhi: The Union government sent a fresh affidavit to the Delhi high court amid its row with WhatsApp over the compliance of new Information and Technology (IT) guidelines.
In the document, the government said that WhatsApp, an instant messaging service owned by social media giant Facebook, is ‘indulging in anti-users practices by obtaining ‘trick consent’ from users for its updated privacy policy.’
Terming WhatsApp’s bombarding of notifications on its customers as an ‘anti-user practice’ for obtaining ‘trick consent’, the central government has urged the court to direct the messaging platform to desist from pushing notifications onto its existing users with regard to the new privacy policy.
The Centre’s claim has been made in an additional affidavit filed in response to several pleas challenging the new privacy policy of WhatsApp.
One of the pleas, which was the first one to be filed, was moved by Chaitanya Rohilla, a lawyer, in January this year.