Yesterday, the Texas Attorney General’s Office filed a lawsuit against WhatsApp and its parent company, Meta Platforms Inc., on the grounds that they had misled customers about the extent and strength of WhatsApp’s encryption features. A representative for Meta refuted these claims.
Despite having access to “virtually all” private interactions on the messaging service, the case filed in Harrison County court claims that WhatsApp and Meta deceive users into believing that messages are encrypted.
The action was filed at a Harrison County state district court by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton under the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act (DTPA) (0.5.7, 0.5.26). The state asserts that Meta has continued to have access to “virtually all” private messages on the platform, while showing it as completely private and unreachable by outside parties.
In a statement, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton stated, “WhatsApp does not deliver on those promises, despite marketing its services as secure and encrypted.”
Andy Stone, a representative for Meta, stated on social media that WhatsApp cannot access users’ encrypted messages and that the lawsuit’s claims are untrue.
A court order prohibiting Meta and WhatsApp from reading Texans’ WhatsApp chats without their permission is sought in the case, along with financial penalties.
News stories regarding a government probe into allegations that Meta had access to unencrypted WhatsApp communications and a whistleblower report to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission are cited in Texas’ case.
The Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act, the primary consumer protection statute in the state, was used to file the action.
In May 2025, Google agreed to pay $1.375 billion to settle allegations that it had breached consumers’ data privacy. Paxton’s office has launched other similar data privacy lawsuits against large firms.
Paxton’s office filed a lawsuit on May 11 accusing Netflix and Open New Tab of spying on children and other users by gathering their data without their consent and creating an addictive platform.
In a statement, Netflix said the complaint is founded on false and misleading information and refuted the accusations.
In Meta’s response, it has strongly rejected the accusations. Andy Stone, a representative for the company, emphasized on social media that the state’s allegations are wholly untrue. Vowing to fiercely defend the lawsuit in court, Meta maintains that WhatsApp uses the strict Signal Protocol for its cryptography and that the business essentially cannot access users’ encrypted chats.
The penalty and legal action are that the state of Texas is seeking a multi-pronged legal remedy that includes a permanent injunction to block Meta and WhatsApp from making “false, misleading, and deceptive” security claims and from accessing Texans’ communications without explicit consent, along with civil penalties of up to $10,000 per violation under Texas consumer protection laws.
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