US Launches Investigation Into Claims Meta Staff Can Access WhatsApp Messages

Federal Investigation Opens New Front in WhatsApp Privacy Battle

The US Department of Commerce is investigating claims from former Meta contractors that company staff had "unfettered" access to WhatsApp messages, despite the platform's promises of end-to-end encryption. Special agents with the Bureau of Industry and Security have examined allegations that content moderators working through Accenture could view encrypted messages.

Class-Action Lawsuit Expands Allegations

A fifty-one page complaint filed on the twenty-third of January in US District Court in San Francisco accuses Meta and WhatsApp of misleading over two billion users worldwide. The lawsuit, with plaintiffs from Australia, Brazil, India, Mexico, and South Africa, alleges that Meta workers can bypass encryption by submitting a simple internal "task" request through company systems.

The allegations build upon a September twenty twenty-five whistleblower lawsuit by former WhatsApp security head Attaullah Baig, who claimed approximately fifteen hundred WhatsApp engineers had unrestricted access to user information including contacts, IP addresses, and profile photos.

Meta Forcefully Denies Claims

Meta spokesperson Andy Stone called the lawsuit "frivolous" and said the company would seek sanctions against the plaintiffs' legal counsel. "Any claim that people's WhatsApp messages are not encrypted is categorically false and absurd," Stone stated. "WhatsApp has been end-to-end encrypted using the Signal protocol for a decade."

WhatsApp chief Will Cathcart dismissed the claims, stating encryption keys are stored on users' devices rather than Meta's servers.

Security Experts Express Scepticism

Matthew Green, a cryptography professor at Johns Hopkins University, noted the most plausible scenario for widespread message exposure would involve unencrypted cloud backups hosted by Google or Apple, which are beyond Meta's control.

However, competing platform leaders have piled on. Telegram founder Pavel Durov wrote that users would "have to be braindead to believe WhatsApp is secure in twenty twenty-six," whilst Elon Musk urged users to switch to X Chat.