A lawsuit in the U.S. accuses Meta of spying on private chats, and Elon Musk targets WhatsApp and joins the controversy
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A lawsuit filed in a federal court in the United States shook the tech world. The claim accuses Meta Platforms of having deliberately misled WhatsApp users about the real privacy of their conversations.
According to the court filing, the company allegedly stated for years that messages were protected by end-to-end encryption—a system that prevents third parties from accessing the content. But in reality, the company would retain the ability to store, analyze, and access supposedly private communications.
Meta Platforms fue demandada en una corte federal de Estados Unidos por presuntamente engañar a miles de millones de usuarios sobre la privacidad real de WhatsApp.
The lawsuit: global scope and serious accusations
The filing was submitted on Friday in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, in San Francisco, by an international group of plaintiffs from Australia, Brazil, India, Mexico, and South Africa.
The goal is for the case to move forward as a global class action, representing billions of WhatsApp users around the world.
The plaintiffs maintain that Meta turned end-to-end encryption into the central pillar of its marketing strategy. However, they discovered that its internal infrastructure would allow access to that data.
The text directly accuses Metaand WhatsApp of fraud and deceptive advertising, by presenting as inviolable a system that, they claim, would not be so.
WhatsApp, propiedad de Meta, enfrenta una demanda internacional.
Whistleblowers and Meta's defense
One of the most sensitive points in the file is the mention of whistleblowers—internal informants—who allegedly provided key information to support the accusations. Although the lawsuit doesn't identify these sources or detail the technical evidence presented, it states that Meta employees would have the ability to access the content of the messages.
If these allegations are confirmed, the impact would not be limited to WhatsApp. It would call into question how major tech platforms communicate and audit their encryption standards.
Meanwhile, Meta flatly rejected the accusations. Its spokesperson Andy Stone described the lawsuit as "frivolous" and "a work of fiction". He asserted that WhatsApp uses the Signal protocol, which is considered one of the industry's most robust standards for secure messaging.
The Signal protocol, originally developed by Open Whisper Systems, is widely recognized by cryptography experts. It is valued for its use of asymmetric encryption and forward secrecy, which would prevent access even by the company's servers.
The company indicated in advance thatit will seek sanctions against the plaintiffs' attorneys.
Elon Musk enters the scene and the mark of a precedent
Elon Musk cuestionó públicamente la seguridad de WhatsApp tras las denuncias y recomendó "X chat"
The controversy escalated even further when Elon Musk reacted publicly on X. "WhatsApp is not secure, even Signal is questionable. Use X Chat", the entrepreneur wrote, fueling the debate over digital privacy and the concentration of power in big tech.
Regardless of the judicial outcome, the lawsuit once again places at center stage the role of platforms and the opacity of their systems. In a context where privacy is a bargaining chip, the case against Meta could set a key precedent regarding how private digital communications really are.
