X vs Meta: Elon Musk sparks privacy row, says WhatsApp is not secure

After the long-simmering rivalry between Elon Musk and Sam Altman, the CEO of X has recently taken aim on Meta, sparking a row over WhatsApp’s inadequate and questionable privacy for users.

Taking to X, formerly called Twitter, Musk slammed Meta, citing, “WhatsApp is not secure. Even Signal is questionable. Use X Chat.”

The censure comes as the claims of whistle-blowers who said WhatsApp’s private data are compromisable and can be read by the parent tech company despite claiming end-to-end encryption.

As reported by Bloomberg, an international group of plaintiffs filed a lawsuit against Meta Platforms, blaming the company for making bogus claims about security and privacy of WhatsApp.

Although Meta’s security is based on a central feature of end-to-end encryption, the whistle-blowers claimed that the company can read these chats despite end-to-end encryption.

Plaintiffs further allege that “Meta and WhatsApp store, analyse, and can access virtually all of WhatsApp users' purportedly ‘private' communications.”

The Meta spokesperson said the company “will pursue sanctions against plaintiffs' counsel.”

“Any claim that people's WhatsApp messages are not encrypted is categorically false and absurd,” spokesperson Andy Stone said in an email.

“WhatsApp has been end-to-end encrypted using the Signal protocol for a decade. This lawsuit is a frivolous work of fiction.” he added.