Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit Thursday against Meta Platforms Inc. and WhatsApp LLC, alleging the messaging service deceived millions of users by falsely claiming their communications are fully encrypted and private.
WhatsApp has long marketed itself as a secure messaging platform using end-to-end encryption, meaning only the sender and recipient can access message contents—not even the platform itself. However, investigations and insider accounts have revealed these claims to be false, according to the attorney general’s office.
Reports indicate WhatsApp employees have been able to access user communications, and message content can be retrieved and viewed after transmission. “This is a complete and total misrepresentation of Meta’s privacy policies,” Paxton’s office stated.
A Meta spokesperson told Texas Scorecard, “WhatsApp cannot access people’s encrypted communications and any suggestion to the contrary is false. We will fight this suit as we continue defending our strong record on protecting people’s messages.”
The lawsuit, filed under the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act, seeks to hold WhatsApp accountable for allegedly misleading consumers about the security of their private conversations and data.
“Texans deserve to know whether their private communications are indeed truly private,” Paxton said. “WhatsApp markets its services as secure and encrypted, but it does not deliver on those promises. I am suing to protect Texans’ privacy and ensure that WhatsApp by Meta does not mislead Texans by unlawfully accessing private conversations and data.”
The action is the latest in a series of legal efforts by Paxton’s office to protect consumer data privacy. It is the second action this week directed at Meta, with Paxton announcing yesterday an investigation into Meta’s AI Glasses.
The petition filed in state court details the extent of Meta’s alleged deceptive practices and seeks civil penalties and injunctive relief to stop the company from continuing the alleged violations.
Meta has built WhatsApp into one of the world’s most widely used messaging platforms, with billions of users globally relying on its promised encryption protections for sensitive personal and business communications.
