Meta can read your WhatsApp messages, lawsuit alleges

A new lawsuit claims that Meta's WhatsApp — the popular messaging platform — has made misleading privacy claims about the app.

The lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court in San Francisco alleges that Meta can "store, analyze, and access virtually all of WhatsApp users' purportedly 'private' communications," which the lawsuit claims defrauds WhatsApp's users, according to a Bloomberg report.

One of WhatsApp's key selling points is end-to-end encryption — a feature Meta says is turned on by default — that allows only the sender and recipient to access messages. Meta denied the allegations in the lawsuit.

"Any claim that people's WhatsApp messages are not encrypted is categorically false and absurd," spokesperson Andy Stone told Bloomberg. "WhatsApp has been end-to-end encrypted using the Signal protocol for a decade. This lawsuit is a frivolous work of fiction."

The lawsuit was reportedly filed by international plaintiffs from Australia, Brazil, India, Mexico, and South Africa who claimed that whistleblowers have come forward with information showing that Meta workers can access users' communications.

WhatsApp is not the only encrypted messaging platform in the news recently. FBI Director Kash Patel said this week he opened an investigation into Signal chats that Minneapolis activists used to communicate about ICE's movements in the city. Signal is perhaps the most commonly used messaging platform for users concerned about privacy. So the news, naturally, led to jokes and memes about where chats would migrate — places like AIM or comments sections.