"Exit India If You Can't": Chief Justice Warns Meta Over WhatsApp Policy

Tech giant and WhatsApp owners Meta received a dressing down from the Supreme Court Tuesday over the instant messaging platform's privacy policy. A bench led by Chief Justice Surya reprimanded the US company, "You can't play with privacy... we will not allow you to share a single digit of our data", and said it would not stand for exploitation of Indians.

The court was hearing a plea regarding WhatsApp's 2021 privacy policy, specifically the company law tribunal upholding the Competition Commission of India's Rs 213 crore fine.

There was also a cross-appeal by the CCI about sharing of user data for advertising purposes, which the tribunal allowed after ruling there was no 'abuse of power' by the company.

Appearing for the government, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta criticised the "exploitative" policy for sharing user data for commercial purpose, and the Chief Justice responded, "If you can't follow our Constitution, leave India. We won't allow citizens' privacy to be compromised."

The court made pointed observations about the policy, including asking if it could be understood by the millions of poor and uneducated people in the country. "... a poor woman or a roadside vendor, or someone who only speaks Tamil... will they be able to understand?"

"Sometimes even we have difficulty understanding your policies..." the court ripped into Meta and WhatsApp after being told of an 'opt out' clause, "... so how will people living in rural Bihar understand them? This is a way of committing theft of private information. We won't allow it."

The Chief Justice then offered his own experience as a benchmark.

"If a message is sent to a doctor on WhatsApp... that you are feeling under the weather... and the doctor sends some medicine prescriptions, immediately you start seeing ads..."

Appearing for Meta and WhatsApp, Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi and Senior Advocate Akhil Sibal, countered by saying all messages are 'end-to-end encrypted', meaning even the companies can't see the content.

What is the case about

In November 2024 the CCI, ruling on the 2021 privacy update, said WhatsApp, as a result of its dominant position in the market, was forcing its users to accept the new policy.

The CCI frowned on WhatsApp telling users that continued access to the messaging services necessitated permitting data-sharing with other Meta platforms. As a result, the Rs 213 crore penalty was imposed, which Rohatgi and Sibal today told the court had been deposited.

In January 2025 Meta and WhatsApp challenged that order. And in November 2025 the law tribunal set aside a five-year hold on WhatsApp sharing data, though it upheld the penalty.