Elon Musk Slams WhatsApp As 'Not Secure' After Lawsuit Accuses Meta Of Misleading Billions - Here's How Platform's Head Responded

Earlier this week, Elon Musk reignited a public debate over chat app privacy after calling WhatsApp "not secure," following a lawsuit that accuses Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) of misleading users about its end-to-end encryption claims.

Musk Targets WhatsApp, Signal, Promotes X Chat

Musk posted on X that "WhatsApp is not secure" and alleged that "even Signal is questionable," urging users to switch to X Chat, the messaging feature built into his social media platform.

In 2021, Musk's endorsement sent Signal downloads surging.

Interestingly, Musk's post got Community Noted, a crowdsourced fact-checking and context-adding system on X. The note said that X Chat offers end-to-end encryption but lacks forward secrecy, meaning a compromised key could expose past messages.

Private keys are controlled by X and secured only by a four-digit PIN, while metadata is still collected. By contrast, Signal uses forward secrecy, stores keys solely on user devices, and collects minimal metadata.

Lawsuit Claims Meta Misled Users On WhatsApp Privacy

The lawsuit, filed Friday in U.S. District Court in San Francisco by an international group of plaintiffs, alleges that Meta falsely markets WhatsApp as fully end-to-end encrypted.

According to the complaint, Meta can allegedly store, analyze and access virtually all of WhatsApp users’ purportedly ‘private' communications," despite assurances to the contrary.

Meta has rejected the claims, calling the lawsuit "frivolous."

WhatsApp Chief Fires Back At Musk

WhatsApp head Will Cathcart swiftly rejected Musk's claims, calling them "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 a post on X.

He added that the lawsuit is a "no-merit, headline-seeking" case brought by the same firm that previously defended NSO Group, whose spyware was used to target journalists and government officials.

Last year, WhatsApp won a $168 million jury verdict against Israel-based NSO Group, the maker of the Pegasus spyware, over a 2019 hacking attack.

Privacy Debate Intensifies As Rivals Weigh In

The development also follows criticism from Telegram founder Pavel Durov, who has also questioned WhatsApp's security practices.

Price Action: Meta shares ended Tuesday up 0.091% at $672.97 and climbed to $674.45 in after-hours trading, data from Benzinga Pro shows.

Meta stock also earns a strong Quality score in Benzinga Edge rankings, with positive short and long-term price trends, despite a weaker medium-term outlook.

Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.