Musk, Durov attack WhatsApp over encryption claims

Elon Musk and his fellow billionaire, Telegram owner Pavel Durov, have reacted strongly to a new class action lawsuit claiming that WhatsApp messages are not private.

The lawsuit was filed with a federal court in California and alleges that WhatsApp wrongfully intercepted and shared private messages with third parties despite claiming its chats are encrypted.

WhatsApp, its owner Meta Platforms, and consulting firm Accenture were named as defendants in the new class action suit filed by plaintiffs Brian Y. Shirazi and Nida Samson.

Musk, who has a history of disagreements with Meta’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg and previously criticized WhatsApp as “not secure,” responded to the new lawsuit by posting “Can’t trust WhatsApp” on his social media platform X.

Durov, who runs rival messaging service Telegram, expanded on criticism by claiming in his own social media post that WhatsApp’s encryption “may be the biggest consumer fraud in history.”

He accused WhatsApp of “deceiving billions of users,” adding that “Telegram has never done this – and never will.”

Durov doubled down on his criticism of the platform over the weekend, posting on social media that "~95% of private messages on WhatsApp end up in plain-text backups on Apple/Google servers," and that backup encryption is "optional."

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WhatsApp has rejected the claims in the lawsuit as “categorically false and absurd.” It said WhatsApp has been “end-to-end encrypted using the Signal protocol for a decade so your messages cannot be read by anyone other than the sender and recipient.”

The claims in this lawsuit are categorically false and absurd. WhatsApp has been end-to-end encrypted using the Signal protocol for a decade so your messages cannot be read by anyone other than the sender and recipient.

undefined WhatsApp (@WhatsApp) April 9, 2026

Cybernews has contacted Meta for comment and it referred us back to the social media statement above. It also noted WhatsApp head Will Cathcart's earlier rebuke of Musk's statements that the platform is not secure as "totally false."

What does the lawsuit say?

The claimants argue that the defendants marketed WhatsApp as a secure platform with end-to-end encryption, but allege that, in reality, WhatsApp and Meta intercepted, stored, accessed, and viewed private messages that users sent on the platform.

The lawsuit claims it constitutes “a serious invasion of plaintiffs’ and class members’ privacy.”

It also notes that federal investigators were informed by whistleblowers that Meta employees and third-party contractors had broad access to private messages “that were supposed to be encrypted and inaccessible.”

The claimants accuse WhatsApp and Meta of violating privacy laws by allowing themselves, their employees, Accenture contractors, and third parties to view WhatsApp users’ messages without their consent.

A similar lawsuit was filed earlier this year alleging that Meta and WhatsApp store, analyze, and can access users’ private communications.

It was also reported that federal authorities had been investigating whistleblower claims that Meta employees had “unfettered” access to WhatsApp messages.

Meta dismissed that earlier 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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