Meta Platforms, Inc. is facing a new lawsuit in the United States alleging it misled users about the privacy and security of WhatsApp messages. The legal challenge was filed by an international group of plaintiffs in the US District Court for the Northern District of California in San Francisco.
The complaint centres on Meta’s long-standing claim that WhatsApp uses end-to-end encryption to protect messages, ensuring they are accessible only to the sender and the recipient. WhatsApp displays an in-app message stating “only people in this chat can read, listen to, or share” the content, a feature the company says means Meta cannot access message content.
According to the plaintiffs, those assertions are false. The lawsuit claims Meta and WhatsApp “store, analyse, and can access virtually all of WhatsApp users’ purportedly ‘private’ communications.” The filing further alleges that employees within the company may be able to view message content, contradicting Meta’s public privacy assurances. The complaint also seeks class-action status, arguing millions of users worldwide have been misled.
The group includes users from Australia, Brazil, India, Mexico and South Africa, highlighting the global scale of WhatsApp’s user base and the potential impact of the allegations. Lawyers for the plaintiffs have pointed to information from anonymous whistleblowers, though details about those sources have not been included in the court filing.
Meta has strongly denied the allegations, describing the lawsuit as “frivolous” and “absurd”. A company spokesperson said any suggestion that WhatsApp messages are not end-to-end encrypted is categorically false. Meta reiterated that WhatsApp has used end-to-end encryption based on the Signal protocol for more than a decade and that it will defend the case vigorously. The company also indicated plans to seek sanctions against the lawyers who brought the lawsuit.
The case puts renewed focus on privacy practices at big tech companies and could shape how messaging platforms communicate encryption and data access to users around the world.
