NEW YORK, May 21 (Reuters) - The Texas Attorney General’s Office on Thursday sued WhatsApp and its parent company Meta Platforms Inc alleging they misled consumers about the strength and scope of WhatsApp's encryption measures, which a Meta spokesman denied.
The lawsuit in Harrison County court says WhatsApp and Meta falsely assure users that WhatsApp messages are encrypted despite having access to “virtually all” private communications on the messaging app.
“WhatsApp markets its services as secure and encrypted, but it does not deliver on those promises,” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said in a statement.
Meta spokesman Andy Stone said on social media that the lawsuit’s allegations are false and that WhatsApp cannot access people’s encrypted communications.
The lawsuit seeks a court order barring Meta and WhatsApp from accessing Texans’ WhatsApp messages without their consent, as well as monetary penalties.
Texas’ lawsuit cites news reports about a federal investigation into claims that Meta had access to unencrypted WhatsApp messages and a whistleblower report to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
The lawsuit was filed under the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act, the state’s main consumer protection law.
Paxton’s office has filed a number of similar data privacy lawsuits against major companies including Google, which agreed in May 2025 to pay $1.375 billion to settle claims that it violated users’ data privacy.
On May 11, Paxton’s office filed a lawsuit accusing Netflix of spying on children and other consumers by collecting their data without consent and designing its platform to be addictive.
Netflix denied the allegations and said the lawsuit is based on inaccurate and distorted information.
(Reporting by Jack Queen in New York; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
