Elon Musk took aim at WhatsApp on his social media platform, as the Meta-owned messaging service faces a class action lawsuit over privacy concerns.
In response to a post by user @cb_doge, Musk wrote: “Can’t trust WhatsApp.”
The class-action lawsuit, filed in early April in a California federal court, accuses Meta Platforms and WhatsApp of violating user privacy by allegedly allowing internal employees and third-party contractors to access private user messages.
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The plaintiffs claim that although WhatsApp is marketed as an end-to-end encrypted messaging service—meaning only senders and recipients can read messages, the complaint alleges that internal systems may allow limited access to message content in certain circumstances.
According to the complaint, this access is reportedly used for purposes such as fraud detection, content moderation, and compliance with legal requests. However, the lawsuit argues that these systems may go further than necessary and could give Meta staff and outsourced contractors, including firms such as Accenture, access to message data that users believed was fully private. The plaintiffs further argue that users were not clearly informed that such access mechanisms exist, which they claim could amount to misleading privacy representations.
The case also references whistleblower claims, which have not been independently verified in court, suggesting that internal tools or workflows may allow employees to retrieve or review message content in certain situations. It further argues that WhatsApp’s public messaging—that “not even WhatsApp” can read users’ chats—may be misleading if any internal access pathways exist.
Meta and WhatsApp have strongly denied the allegations, insisting that the platform uses end-to-end encryption and that message content is not accessible in normal operation. They characterize the lawsuit as inaccurate and reject the claim that private messages are routinely read or intercepted.
The case is still in its early stages, meaning none of the allegations have been proven in court and the legal process is ongoing.
For WhatsApp, the immediate impact is less about legal outcomes and more about perception: messaging apps depend heavily on the belief that conversations are private, and once that belief is questioned, users and regulators tend to scrutinize every aspect of data handling more closely. Even without any final judgment, sustained attention of this kind can push companies to be more transparent about internal processes, tighten access controls, and clarify how human review systems interact with automated security tools.
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For Elon Musk and X, the situation provides an opportunity to reinforce a long-standing narrative that positions X as an alternative ecosystem where users can migrate if they lose confidence in competing platforms. Public criticism of rivals also serves a strategic branding function, strengthening Musk’s broader message about openness and distrust of traditional tech incumbents.
At the same time, it places X under similar expectations, as users and regulators often extend the same privacy questions to any major communication platform. The significance of this moment lies in how it illustrates the fragility of trust in large-scale messaging services.