New Delhi, 1st February 2023: The Supreme Court (SC) on Wednesday directed WhatsApp to fulfil its promise to the Center in 2021 not to limit the functionality of users who do not agree with its new privacy policy. A five-judge Constitution bench headed by Justice KM Joseph also asked the mobile messaging app to advertise in five newspapers to publicize its undertaking given to the government.

A bench of Justices Ajay Rastogi, Aniruddha Bose, Hrishikesh Roy and C T Ravikumar also adjourned the matter for hearing, saying, “We further direct that WhatsApp shall inform the customers of WhatsApp on this aspect in five national newspapers on two occasions.”

The apex court was hearing a petition filed by two students – Karmanya Singh Sareen and Shreya Sethi. The petition challenges the contract between WhatsApp and its parent Facebook to provide access to calls, photographs, texts, videos and documents shared by users. The petition states that this step of WhatsApp is a violation of privacy and freedom of expression.