US Lawsuit Accuses Meta Of Accessing Private WhatsApp Messages; Company Calls Claims 'Fiction'

A lawsuit filed in US District Court in San Francisco accuses Meta and WhatsApp of falsely claiming privacy for user communications, alleging they “store, analyse, and can access virtually all of WhatsApp users’ ‘private’ communications.” The plaintiffs, representing users from Australia, Brazil, India, Mexico, and South Africa, are seeking class-action status and claim Meta workers can access the content of user messages. Meta has strongly refuted these claims, stating they are “categorically false and absurd” and labeling the lawsuit a “frivolous work of fiction.” The company asserts that WhatsApp has maintained end-to-end encryption using the Signal protocol for a decade and intends to pursue sanctions against the plaintiffs’ counsel.

WhatsApp, founded in 2009 by Jan Koum and Brian Acton, was acquired by Facebook (now Meta) in 2014 for $19 billion. Mark Zuckerberg, then Facebook CEO, stated the acquisition aligned with the Internet.org vision. The messaging app, initially launched for iOS and later for Android, has grown to over 3 billion monthly active users globally, including 100 million in the US, making it the world’s most popular mobile messenger app.

(Source：Free Press Journal)