Overview
- Plaintiffs represented by Quinn Emanuel allege an internal Meta “task” system lets employees obtain near real‑time and historical access to WhatsApp chats.
- WhatsApp and Meta reject the claims as categorically false, and Meta is seeking sanctions against the plaintiffs’ law firm.
- Johns Hopkins cryptographer Matthew Green argues the scenario is exceedingly unlikely and says any such backdoor would likely be detectable in app binaries.
- Other researchers, including UCL’s Steven Murdoch, voice skepticism as the public complaint provides no concrete technical evidence.
- WhatsApp uses a closed‑source implementation of the Signal protocol, which limits external verification, and the case remains at an early procedural stage.