Tech titans Elon Musk and Telegram CEO Pavel Durov have launched scathing attacks on WhatsApp's privacy practices following explosive allegations in a US class action lawsuit that claims the Meta-owned messaging platform has been secretly accessing users' private conversations.
Telegram CEO calls WhatsApp encryption 'biggest consumer fraud in history'
In a social media post, Telegram founder Pavel Durov declared that WhatsApp's encryption claims may represent the biggest consumer fraud in history, alleging the platform deceives billions of users by reading their messages and sharing them with third parties despite marketing itself as secure.
Durov emphasised that Telegram has never engaged in such practices and never will, positioning his platform as a trustworthy alternative in the wake of the controversy.
Elon Musk urges users to abandon WhatsApp
X owner Elon Musk weighed in on Thursday with a blunt assessment, posting on his platform that users 'can't trust WhatsApp.' The billionaire entrepreneur went further, urging users to switch to X Chat for messaging and voice/video calls, claiming it comes with the great benefit of actual privacy.
The timing of Musk's intervention is significant given the long-standing rivalry between Musk and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, which has included everything from competing product launches to a challenge for a cage fight.
WhatsApp faces a class action lawsuit
The controversy centers on a class action lawsuit filed in California federal court by plaintiffs Brian Y Shirazi and Nida Samson against Meta, WhatsApp, and Accenture.
The lawsuit alleges that while WhatsApp markets itself as a secure platform where users can send private messages, the company and Meta have allegedly intercepted, read, stored, accessed, and viewed private messages users sent on the platform.
Perhaps most damning, the complaint cites whistleblowers who informed federal investigators that Meta employees and third-party contractors had broad access to the substance of WhatsApp messages that were supposed to be encrypted and inaccessible.
Meta fires back at 'categorically false' claims
Meta has not taken the allegations lightly. In an official statement, WhatsApp defended itself, declaring the claims in the lawsuit categorically false and absurd, asserting that WhatsApp has been end-to-end encrypted using the Signal protocol for a decade so messages cannot be read by anyone other than the sender and recipient.
The company's defence emphasises its use of industry-standard encryption technology, the same protocol used by Signal, which is widely regarded as one of the most secure messaging platforms available.
The plaintiffs argue that WhatsApp and Meta violated privacy laws by allowing themselves, their employees, Accenture contractors, and third parties to view the contents of communications without user consent.
This allegedly occurred despite WhatsApp's marketing materials and in-app messages stating that 'not even WhatsApp' can see personal messages.
The class action further alleges that WhatsApp and Meta do not ask users to consent to having the contents of their messages intercepted, read, stored, accessed, or viewed by the companies, their respective employees, contractors, or other third parties.
