Paxton sues WhatsApp over encryption claims

The Texas Attorney General has sued WhatsApp and Meta, claiming the messaging software misleads customers by promising privacy it cannot achieve.

The lawsuit, filed Thursday in Harrison County state district court, claims WhatsApp deceptively portrays its service as “end-to-end encrypted,” meaning only the sender and receiver can read conversations. Paxton's office claims the assertion violates the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act, a consumer protection law.

“Texans deserve to know whether their private communications are truly private,” Paxton added. “WhatsApp markets its services as secure and encrypted, but it does not deliver on those promises.”

Meta denied it. Meta spokesman Rachel Holland stated, “WhatsApp cannot access people’s encrypted communications, and any suggestion to the contrary is false.” The corporation would fight the complaint, she said.

The lawsuit wants a judge to stop WhatsApp from accessing messages without consent and charge it $10,000 each infraction.

Paxton's office claimed the lawsuit is based on whistleblower accusations Meta can read WhatsApp chats. Bloomberg reports that the lawsuit also cites a federal Commerce Department inquiry into Meta and WhatsApp that was halted earlier this year after an investigator noted in a document that Meta could examine “no limit” of WhatsApp chats.

This is Paxton's latest lawsuit against tech and media giants. He sued Netflix for data privacy this month. On Thursday, he stated his office would examine Meta over Meta Glasses' audio and video privacy protections.

Paxton has settled with major tech corporations. Meta settled a face recognition lawsuit with Texas for $1.4 billion in 2024. In another data-gathering lawsuit last year, Google paid Texas $1.4 billion.

Paxton filed the case as he seeks the Republican Senate nomination in a runoff against incumbent John Cornyn.