Elon Musk, Telegram CEO say ‘can’t trust’ WhatsApp; Meta hits back at ‘absurd’ claims

TEXAS: The owner of X, Elon Musk, as well as CEO of Telegram, Pavel Durov, have questioned the privacy practices of popular messaging Meta-owned platform WhatsApp.

Musk on Thursday posted on X saying, “can’t trust WhatsApp”. The billionaire entrepreneur’s response comes in the light of a new US class action lawsuit, which claims that the Meta-owned app intercepted private messages of users despite its claims of bulletproof end-to-end encryption and even shared them with third parties like Accenture.

In another post, Musk urged users to switch to X Chat for messaging and voice/video calls, saying it “comes with this great benefit of actual privacy”.

Can’t trust WhatsApp https://t.co/Ts55gVXqkD

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 9, 2026

Meta immediately hit back, rejecting these accusations and defending WhatsApp’s encryption system. “The claims in this lawsuit are categorically false and absurd. WhatsApp has been end-to-end encrypted using the Signal protocol for a decade so your messages cannot be read by anyone other than the sender and recipient.

Similarly, in a social media post, Durov said, “WhatsApp’s “encryption” may be the biggest consumer fraud in history — deceiving billions of users.” Despite its claims, it reads users’ messages and shares them with third parties.”
Telegram, Durov said, “has never done this — and never will.”

WhatsApp’s “encryption” may be the biggest consumer fraud in history — deceiving billions of users. Despite its claims, it reads users’ messages and shares them with third parties. Telegram has never done this — and never will pic.twitter.com/2DYguybgoU

— Pavel Durov (@durov) April 9, 2026

The rivalry between the two tech moghuls Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg (CEO of Meta) has been long-standing. After Musk acquired Twitter (now X), Meta launched Threads in July 2023, directly aiming to challenge X.

In 2025, Musk launched a meme highlighting his AI chatbot, Grok, as superior to Meta AI. In June 2023, Musk challenged Zuckerberg to a cage fight. Zuckerberg, who trains in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, responded via Instagram, “Send me location.”

The class action lawsuit against WhatsApp was filed in California federal court in January this year against Meta Platforms Inc., WhatsApp LLC, Accenture PLC and Accenture LLP. The lawsuit claims that the defendants wrongfully intercepted and shared private WhatsApp messages with third parties.

The complaint alleges this occurs despite WhatsApp’s marketing materials and in-app messages stating that “not even WhatsApp” can see personal messages. The plaintiffs are demanding a jury trial and request declaratory and injunctive relief and an award of statutory, compensatory, exemplary and punitive damages for themselves and all class members. (ANI)