Trump Admin Closes Investigation Into Alleged Backdoor for WhatsApp: Report
The U.S. Commerce Department has closed an investigation into allegations that Meta could access encrypted WhatsApp messages. A federal agent had spent ten months looking into these claims, which Meta strongly denies. The investigation was abruptly ended after the agent shared preliminary findings without confirming any legal violations.
- ▪The investigation focused on whether Meta employees could read WhatsApp messages, which the company denies.
- ▪The federal agent claimed that Meta had a tiered permissions system allowing access to messages since at least 2019.
- ▪WhatsApp has been encrypted since 2016 and is used by over 2 billion people globally.
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The U.S. Commerce Department has reportedly closed an investigation into whether Meta employees and contractors were able to read the contents of encrypted WhatsApp messages. A special agent at the federal agency reportedly spent much of 2025 investigating allegations that Meta can view WhatsApp messages, claims that the company denies.cnx.cmd.push(function(){cnx({"playerId":"92b7b46b-43ed-4e0e-b21b-2c999302d9d7","settings":{"advertising":{"macros":{"AD_UNIT":"/23178111854/od.gizmodo.com/article","CHILD_UNIT":"article","POST_ID":"2000751760","POST_TYPE":"post","CHANNEL":"tech","SECTION":"privacy-and-security","SUBSECTION":"","CATEGORIES":"privacy-and-security","TAGS":"cybersecurity,meta,whatsapp","NOP":"0"},"timeBeforeFirstAd":0}}}).render("cnx-player-main")}); According to a new report…
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