Meta has pushed back on allegations that it can secretly read users’ private messages on WhatsApp, with the messaging platform’s head, Will Cathcart, dismissing the claims as ‘totally false’.
Cathcart’s remarks were directly aimed at billionaire Elon Musk’s claims that WhatsApp is ‘not safe’, and that users should rather switch to X’s messaging service as a safer alternative for communication.
“This is totally false. WhatsApp can’t read messages because the encryption keys are stored on your phone and we don’t have access to them,” Cathcart said in an X (formerly Twitter) post.
These sharp remarks from Meta and rival company executives come amid renewed scrutiny of message security on WhatsApp after an international group of plaintiffs sued Meta platforms on Monday. The lawsuit accused the company of making false privacy claims.
The complaint makes serious claims that Meta employees can gain access to any user messages through an internet system, which means they can bypass the encryption that WhatsApp has marketed as its core privacy feature for the past many years.
“This is a no-merit, headline-seeking lawsuit brought by the very same firm defending NSO after their spyware attacked journalists and government officials,” Cathcart wrote on X.
A spokesperson for Meta also responded to the allegations earlier, stating that the lawsuit was “frivolous”, along with announcing that the company “will pursue sanctions against plaintiffs’ counsel,” Bloomberg reported.
By livemint
