Khaberni - U.S. authorities are investigating claims that Meta can access the content of encrypted messages on the WhatsApp app, following a lawsuit filed last week accusing the company of being able to actually access most of the private communications of WhatsApp users, which Meta has vehemently denied.
According to "The Guardian", the investigations followed a lawsuit filed by the law firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, which was based on statements from various individuals from countries including Australia, Brazil, India, Mexico, and South Africa.
The lawsuit alleges that end-to-end encryption claims do not prevent Meta from viewing the messages.
In contrast, Meta described these claims as false and ridiculous, considering them a publicity attempt to support the NSO Group, a company specializing in spyware, which recently lost a lawsuit filed by WhatsApp against it.
Meta's spokesperson, Carl Woog, stated that the company seeks to impose sanctions on the law firm for filing a baseless lawsuit aimed only at stirring controversy and making headlines.
He emphasized that WhatsApp's encryption "remains secure," and that the company will continue to defend users' right to private communication against what he described as "attempts to undermine this right".
The case coincides with another legal dispute, as the Quinn Emanuel firm assists NSO Group in appealing a judgment issued by a U.S. federal court last year, which ordered it to pay $167 million to WhatsApp for violating service terms by using the "Pegasus" spyware to spy on more than 1,400 users, including journalists and activists.
Adam Wolfson, a partner at the law firm, said the office's defense of NSO "has nothing to do with the facts" on which the new lawsuit was based, adding that WhatsApp's denial was carefully crafted and does not deny - in his opinion - the core claim about Meta's ability to read messages.
In the same context, reports relayed by Bloomberg agency from interviews with officials at the U.S. Department of Commerce indicate that Washington actually investigated whether Meta could read WhatsApp messages, although a department spokesperson described these claims as "unsupported by evidence".
WhatsApp affirmed that its system relies on end-to-end encryption, ensuring that only the sender and recipient can view the messages, and they cannot be decrypted through intermediary servers.
This differs from other applications like Telegram, which encrypts messages between the user and its servers, theoretically allowing the company access to the content.
