The Supreme Court of India warns Meta to "leave India" if it cannot respect user privacy. Read the full analysis of the WhatsApp "data theft" hearing.
Brajesh Mishra
In a landmark confrontation between the Indian judiciary and Big Tech, the Supreme Court of India today issued a scorched-earth warning to Meta and WhatsApp: follow the Constitution or "opt-out of the country." During a high-stakes hearing, a bench led by Chief Justice Surya Kant characterized WhatsApp’s 2021 privacy policy as a "decent way of committing theft of private information," signaling a paradigm shift in how India intends to regulate digital monopolies.
The Court’s intervention comes as Meta challenges a ₹213.14 crore penalty imposed by the Competition Commission of India (CCI). Refusing to accept Meta's technical defenses, the CJI asserted that the "privacy of citizens cannot be compromised for the business interests of an MNC," setting a hard deadline of February 9, 2026, for Meta to file an undertaking to halt unauthorized data sharing or face a definitive interim order.
CJI Surya Kant (Chief Justice of India): The Defender of Digital Sovereignty. He highlighted that complex policies are "theft" when forced upon the digitally illiterate, explicitly citing the vulnerability of street vendors in rural India.
Mukul Rohatgi (Senior Advocate for Meta): The Corporate Shield. He argued that the platform is compliant with the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act and that "opt-out" mechanisms exist—an argument the Court dismissed as "too clever" for common users.
Tushar Mehta (Solicitor General): The State’s Voice. He supported the CCI's stance, arguing that Meta "rents out" user behavior for commercial gain, effectively turning Indian citizens into "manufactured" products for the global advertising market.
The media is framing this as a "Privacy vs. Profit" debate, but the real story is the Death of the "Click-Wrap" Agreement. For decades, Big Tech has relied on the legal fiction that a user "consents" by clicking a button.
The Supreme Court is now introducing the Doctrine of Cognitive Sovereignty: if a street vendor in Bihar or a domestic helper in Tamil Nadu cannot understand the "crafty language" of a policy, that consent is legally void. This isn't just a blow to Meta; it is an existential threat to the entire business model of "manufactured consent" that powers the global app economy. India is no longer just protecting data; it is protecting the understanding of the user.
Can a global tech giant truly respect a local constitution when its entire profit engine is built on the very data-sharing practices that constitution forbids?
What did the Supreme Court say about WhatsApp's privacy policy? The Court called the policy a "decent way of committing theft" and warned Meta to either follow India's Constitution or stop functioning in the country.
Will WhatsApp be banned in India in 2026? While no ban is currently in effect, the Court has threatened a shutdown if Meta does not provide a clear undertaking by February 9, 2026, to stop sharing user data for ads.
Why was Meta fined ₹213 crore by the CCI? The penalty was imposed for abusing its dominant position by forcing users to accept a "take-it-or-leave-it" privacy policy that linked WhatsApp use to data sharing with Facebook.
What is 'manufactured consent' in the Meta case? The Court used this term to describe consent that is forced upon users who have no alternative but to accept the policy to stay connected, making their "choice" illusory.
When is the next hearing for the WhatsApp privacy case? The Supreme Court has scheduled the next hearing for February 9, 2026, to pass interim directions based on Meta's upcoming affidavit.
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