By Shubhangi Chowdhury
WhatsApp, the messaging service owned by Meta Platforms, has been banned from all U.S. House of Representatives devices, according to a memo sent to House staff on Monday.
“Office of Cybersecurity has deemed WhatsApp a high risk to users due to the lack of transparency in how it protects user data, absence of stored data encryption, and potential security risks involved with its use,” said the notice. It further ordered not to download or keep the messaging service from June 30 and if anybody keeps that application would be asked to uninstall it. “If you have a WhatsApp application on your House-managed device, you will be contacted to remove it,” the email reads.
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However, a Meta spokesperson firmly pushed back against the decision, “in the strongest possible terms,” stating that the messaging platform offers stronger security protections compared to the other approved applications. The person added that WhatsApp messages were “end-to-end encrypted by default,” meaning that neither the company nor third parties could read them.
The memo advises House staff to switch to alternative messaging platforms such as Microsoft Teams, Amazon’s Wickr, Signal, and Apple’s iMessage and FaceTime. This isn’t the first time the House has taken such action—back in 2022, it banned the short-form video app TikTok from staff devices over security concerns.
This ban on WhatsApp by the U.S. House of Representatives underscores the growing tension between tech giants and government bodies when it comes to data privacy and transparency. While WhatsApp stands by its end-to-end encryption, questions now rise about how the app handles stored data and potential security vulnerabilities continue to draw scrutiny from lawmakers and regulators.
This isn’t just a U.S. issue—governments around the world have taken similar steps. China has had WhatsApp blocked since 2017 under its “Great Firewall,” and in 2024, Apple pulled it from the China App Store under government pressure. Hong Kong recently barred civil servants from using WhatsApp and a few other apps on official devices due to cybersecurity concerns. Even in the UAE, where tech innovation is booming, apps like WhatsApp and Skype are heavily restricted.
The platform is under increasing pressure to be more transparent and meet stricter standards.
WhatsApp’s story began back in February 2009 when Jan Koum and Brian Acton launched it as a no-frills, ad-free messaging app. It quickly gained traction, and by 2014, Facebook (now Meta) bought it for a massive $19 billion. Since then, it’s grown into one of the world’s most popular messaging platforms, with billions of users across the globe.