Elon Musk says WhatsApp cannot be trusted on privacy, WhatsApp terms it untrue

As the chatter around privacy on WhatsApp ignites again, Elon Musk is trying to fan the fire. Again. On Thursday Elon Musk called WhatsApp unsafe for users. His comments follow the ongoing lawsuit which alleges WhatsApp falsely claims end-to-end encryption while enabling access to private messages.

In Short

• Elon Musk says WhatsApp “can’t be trusted” 
• WhatsApp is currently fighting a lawsuit around its privacy promise 
• WhatsApp claims it is a completely secure messaging platform 

Earlier this year, Meta found itself facing a major class-action lawsuit in a US court. The suit alleges that WhatsApp misled users with its end-to-end encryption claims while secretly enabling access to private messages. While Meta has strongly denied the allegations, the controversy is again gaining traction on X, with Elon Musk outright calling WhatsApp unsafe for users, reigniting his long-standing feud with Mark Zuckerberg and the broader debate around messaging privacy.

Replying to a viral post highlighting the ongoing legal case, Musk wrote, “Can’t trust WhatsApp.” In another post, he urged users to shift to his own platform, X, for more secure audio and video calls. This isn’t the first time we have seen Musk taking shots at Meta. He has often criticised Zuckerberg and his company’s platform, while also promoting X Chat as a more secure and private alternative. And the ongoing lawsuit has given another reason to Musk to callout his competitor.

But this time Musk is not alone. In the viral thread, Telegram CEO Pavel Durov also criticised WhatsApp. He claimed the app’s encryption could be misleading and accused it of sharing user data with third parties. “WhatsApp’s “encryption” may be the biggest consumer fraud in history — deceiving billions of users. Despite its claims, it reads messages and shares them with third parties. Telegram has never done this — and never will,” he wrote on X.

However, it’s worth noting that Telegram does not offer end-to-end encryption by default. Its standard chats are cloud-based, meaning messages are stored on Telegram servers. Only its “Secret Chats” feature uses full end-to-end encryption, making its privacy model fundamentally different, and less robust — at least in theory — than WhatsApp’s default encryption system.

Lawsuit against WhatsApp

Coming back to the controversy, at the centre of the issue is the class-action lawsuit alleging that WhatsApp allows employees, contractors, and third parties to access private messages. The complaint claims that internal systems at Meta, the parent company of WhatsApp, can potentially bypass encryption, enabling message reviews, particularly in cases related to moderation or flagged content. It also names external partners like Accenture and refers to what it describes as a “kleptographic backdoor.”

WhatsApp has firmly rejected these allegations. On Thursday, it also responded publicly to Musk’s comments, stating: “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.”

The company further clarified that there is no “backdoor” in its system. While some messages may be reviewed if users report chats or if harmful content is flagged, WhatsApp maintains that this does not mean it has blanket access to private conversations.

- Ends