US probes claims Meta employees had “unfettered” access to WhatsApp chats

US law enforcement authorities have been investigating allegations that Meta employees had “unfettered” access to WhatsApp messages despite the company claiming the chats are encrypted.

The allegations, made by former contractors, were examined by special agents with the US Department of Commerce, according to documents and people familiar with the matter, as reported by Bloomberg.

The inquiry, dubbed “Operation Sourced Encryption,” was reportedly carried out by the Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS). It was still active as of January, but its scope and potential targets remain unclear.

The investigation does not imply any wrongdoing, and some end without any formal accusations.

A spokesperson for BIS told Bloomberg that the assertion by their employee who carried out the inquiry about WhatsApp encryption practices is “unsubstantiated and outside the scope of his authority.”

The inquiry was led by an export enforcement agent who spoke with two Meta content moderators under contract with the consulting firm Accenture. Both told him that they, along with some of the other staff, had “unfettered” access to WhatsApp messages that were supposed to be protected by end-to-end encryption and inaccessible.

BIS oversees US export controls, and the records do not indicate in what legal capacity the agent conducted the inquiry. The agency said it was not investigating WhatsApp or Meta for violations of the export laws, but did not directly answer questions about the target of the probe, according to Bloomberg.

Similar allegations were also raised in a separate whistleblower report filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in 2024. The SEC declined to comment on the status of that complaint.

The claims by former contractors resemble allegations made in a civil lawsuit filed this month in federal court in San Francisco, also first reported by Bloomberg. The suit alleges that Meta and WhatsApp store, analyze, and can access users’ private communications.

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Meta previously dismissed the lawsuit as “frivolous” and described other claims as impossible.

The company, which acquired WhatsApp in 2014, markets it as a private app with end-to-end encryption, claiming that “no one outside of the chat, not even WhatsApp, can read, listen to, or share” what users say.

Meta also owns social media platforms Facebook and Instagram.

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