US probes claims that Meta can access WhatsApp messages

U.S. authorities have investigated claims that Meta Platforms can read users’ encrypted messages on WhatsApp, according to a report by The Guardian.

The reports follow a lawsuit filed last week alleging that Meta 'can access virtually all of WhatsApp users' purportedly ‘private’ communications.’ The platform is owned by Meta.

The platform owner has denied the allegation. In comments cited by Bloomberg, a Meta spokesperson said the claim was “categorically false and absurd,” and described the lawsuit as an attempt to support NSO Group, an Israeli spyware company that recently lost a case brought by WhatsApp.

The lawsuit was filed by the law firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, which said its claims are based on accounts from unnamed whistleblowers in Australia, Brazil, India, Mexico and South Africa. Quinn Emanuel is also representing NSO Group in a separate appeal against a U.S. federal court ruling that ordered the company to pay $167 million to the platform for violating its terms of service through the use of Pegasus spyware.

Carl Woog, a Meta spokesperson, said the company was seeking sanctions against the law firm. He said Quinn Emanuel had filed “a meritless lawsuit that was designed purely to grab headlines,” adding that the firm was also attempting to overturn an injunction barring NSO Group from operating after it targeted journalists and government officials with spyware.

Adam Wolfson, a partner at Quinn Emanuel, said the firm’s work defending NSO Group on appeal was unrelated to the WhatsApp case. He said the lawsuit was based on facts disclosed to the firm and argued that WhatsApp’s public denials did not directly refute the central allegation that Meta has the ability to read WhatsApp messages, despite claims of end-to-end encryption.

WhatsApp has long said it uses end-to-end encryption, meaning messages can be read only by the sender and recipient and not by WhatsApp or Meta. This differs from some other messaging platforms, which encrypt messages between users and company servers but can technically access message content.

Woog said Meta would continue to defend WhatsApp’s encryption and oppose what he described as attempts to undermine private communication.