Telegram CEO accuses WhatsApp of 'biggest consumer fraud ever' over encryption

A significant privacy dispute has emerged in the messaging sector, with Telegram CEO Pavel Durov and Elon Musk challenging WhatsApp's encryption security claims. Following Musk's recent comments, Durov has escalated the criticism by describing WhatsApp's encryption promises as potentially the largest consumer fraud in history.

Durov took to social media platform X to express his views, stating that WhatsApp's encryption may represent the biggest consumer fraud in history, deceiving billions of users worldwide. He alleged that despite public claims about security, WhatsApp reads user messages and shares them with third parties. The Telegram founder emphasized that his platform has never engaged in such practices and remains committed to user privacy protection.

Elon Musk has also voiced concerns about privacy on messaging platforms. In response to recent legal action against Meta, Musk encouraged users to switch to X Chat, a messaging feature integrated into his platform. He characterized X Chat as offering genuine privacy benefits, positioning it as a more secure alternative to existing solutions.

The controversy centers on a class action lawsuit accusing Meta of breaching its own encryption commitments by providing access to private messages. The legal filing claims that WhatsApp permitted employees and third-party contractors, including those from Accenture, to intercept and read user communications. According to the lawsuit, WhatsApp and Meta employees possessed backdoor access to all user messages for investigation and internal review purposes.

Meta has firmly rejected these allegations, calling them categorically false and absurd. The company maintains that WhatsApp has utilized end-to-end encryption through the Signal protocol for ten years, ensuring messages cannot be read by anyone except the intended sender and recipient. WhatsApp's official documentation reinforces this position, stating that no entity outside a conversation, including WhatsApp itself, can access messages.

However, Telegram has faced its own criticism regarding moderation practices and misuse by bad actors. In 2024, Durov was arrested in France amid allegations of insufficient content moderation related to illegal material distribution. Russian authorities have initiated an investigation into Durov concerning alleged connections to extremist activities, creating the possibility of regulatory action against the platform in Russia.