International Group Sues Meta, Accusing WhatsApp of False Privacy Claims

Glonghui January 25｜An international group of plaintiffs has filed a lawsuit against Meta Platforms, accusing the company of making false claims regarding the privacy and security features of its instant messaging app, WhatsApp. Meta Platforms has promoted so-called "end-to-end" encryption technology as a core function of WhatsApp. In theory, this encryption ensures that messages are only visible to the sender and recipient, and cannot be read by the platform itself. The company claims that such encrypted chat features are enabled by default, and prompts within the WhatsApp app indicate, "Only participants in this chat can view, listen to, or share" message content. The group of plaintiffs filed the lawsuit on Friday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, accusing Meta Platforms of false privacy advertising. They pointed out that Meta Platforms and WhatsApp "store, analyze, and are almost able to access all communications that should be considered 'private' by users." The lawsuit also accuses both companies and their management of defrauding billions of WhatsApp users worldwide.