{"id":251948,"date":"2026-05-21T17:28:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T21:28:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/21\/texas-sues-whatsapp-meta-over-alleged-privacy-violations\/"},"modified":"2026-05-21T19:25:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T23:25:13","slug":"texas-sues-whatsapp-meta-over-alleged-privacy-violations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/21\/texas-sues-whatsapp-meta-over-alleged-privacy-violations\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas sues WhatsApp, Meta over alleged privacy violations"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/2026\/05\/21\/texas-whatsapp-meta-privacy-encryption-lawsuit\/\">Texas sues WhatsApp, Meta over alleged privacy violations<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/2026\/05\/21\/texas-whatsapp-meta-privacy-encryption-lawsuit\/\">https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/2026\/05\/21\/texas-whatsapp-meta-privacy-encryption-lawsuit\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Publish Date: <a href=\"publish_date]\">2026-05-21 17:28:00<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Source Domain: <a href=\"www.texastribune.org\">www.texastribune.org<\/a><\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Everlit Audio Player\" width=\"100%\" height=\"136px\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen=\"\" class=\"perfmatters-lazy\" data-src=\"https:\/\/everlit.audio\/embeds\/artl_BaYyLH6pyna?ui_cover_art=false&#038;ui_title_intro=Listen+to+this+article&#038;ui_title_icon=headphones&#038;client=wp&#038;client_version=3.1.8\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Audio recording is automated for accessibility. Humans wrote and edited the story. See our AI policy, and give us feedback.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton added WhatsApp to the growing list of companies he has accused of violating Texans\u2019 data privacy, announcing a lawsuit against the messaging app and its parent company, Meta, on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The lawsuit states WhatsApp is deceiving its users by claiming to offer \u201cend-to-end encryption,\u201d or a software that conceals the contents of a message to anyone, including the company, except to the sender and receiver. This follows Paxton\u2019s lawsuit against Netflix, also over privacy issues, earlier this month and a recent settlement with smart TV maker LG electronics, all while he pursues the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate in a heated runoff against incumbent John Cornyn.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cTexans deserve to know whether their private communications are indeed truly private,\u201d Paxton wrote in a statement. \u201cWhatsApp markets its services as secure and encrypted, but it does not deliver on those promises. I am suing to protect Texans\u2019 privacy and ensure that WhatsApp by Meta does not mislead Texans by unlawfully accessing private conversations and data.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For years, Meta has faced allegations and lawsuits that it can, in fact, view private messages sent on WhatsApp. The company, which acquired WhatsApp in 2014, has consistently denied the claims. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWhatsApp cannot access people\u2019s encrypted communications and any suggestion to the contrary is false,\u201d Meta spokesperson Rachel Holland wrote in a statement responding to Paxton\u2019s lawsuit Thursday. \u201cWe will fight this suit as we continue defending our strong record on protecting people\u2019s messages.\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The lawsuit and a news release from Paxton\u2019s office point to whistleblowers that claim Meta does have access to messages sent on the platform. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A federal Commerce Department investigation into Meta and WhatsApp was abruptly closed&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/2026\/05\/21\/texas-whatsapp-meta-privacy-encryption-lawsuit\/\">Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Texas sues WhatsApp, Meta over alleged privacy violations https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/2026\/05\/21\/texas-whatsapp-meta-privacy-encryption-lawsuit\/ Publish Date: 2026-05-21 17:28:00 Source Domain:&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":251949,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.texastribune.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/260303-Paxton-Watch-Party-20-JJ.jpg?fit=2560%2C1707&quality=100&ssl=1&w=1200&h=630","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-251948","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-privacy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251948"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=251948"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251948\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":251951,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251948\/revisions\/251951"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/251949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=251948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=251948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=251948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}