Billionaire Elon Musk took to X to slam Meta’s WhatsApp after whistleblowers said private chats on the messaging platform can be read by the company, despite promises of end-to-end encryption.
“WhatsApp is not secure. Even Signal is questionable. Use X Chat,” he wrote on X.
Musk argues that Meta (WhatsApp’s parent company) uses “misleading” marketing regarding encryption. He has pointed to whistleblower allegations and lawsuits claiming that Meta can store and analyze communications for advertising or internal monitoring.
He also frequently questions the security of the Signal protocol (which WhatsApp uses) to promote his own platform’s messaging features.
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Meta’s Will Cathcart, Head of WhatsApp and other Meta spokespeople have consistently called these claims “categorically false” and “absurd.”
They maintain that because encryption keys are stored on the user’s device, Meta cannot read the content of messages. They often dismiss Musk’s comments as “headline-seeking” attempts to drive users toward his platform, X.
By Anthony Solly
