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Meta hits back after US House staffers banned from using WhatsApp over
security fears

Date:
Tue, 24 Jun 2025 13:07:00 +0000

Description:
US Congress workers are to be asked to remove WhatsApp from all
government-issued devices, and Meta isn't happy.

FULL STORY

The US House's Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) has banned WhatsApp from 
all government devices used by congressional staffers amid growing security
concerns. 

A Axios report claims the warning cited a lack of transparency surrounding
data protection as a key motivation behind the ban, while also noting the
absence of stored data encryption, raising potential security risks 
associated with WhatsApp use. 

The ban will affect all versions of WhatsApp, including the mobile app,
desktop app and web browser versions. US Congress workers asked to remove
WhatsApp 

Staffers with WhatsApp on House-managed devices will be contacted to remove
the app, according to the report. 

Although tech bans are nothing new to US government workers, most have been
related to ongoing geopolitical tensions  DeepSeek and ByteDance are two
Chinese platforms that have been banned. However, workers have also been
restricted from using Microsoft Copilot, and only certain paid versions of
ChatGPT may be used. 

"The Office of Cybersecurity has deemed WhatsApp a high-risk to users due to
the lack of transparency in how it protects user data, absence of stored data
encryption, and potential security risks involved with its use," the CAO
explained to Axios . 

Meta spokesperson Andy Stone challenged the Congressional ban of WhatsApp,
wroting on X, "We know members and their staffs regularly use WhatsApp and we
look forward to ensuring members of the House can join their Senate
counterparts in doing so officially." 

"We disagree with the House Chief Administrative Officers characterization in
the strongest possible terms." 

Stone also noted that WhatsApp messages are end-to-end encrypted by default,
which is more than can be said about a number of other CAO-approved apps. 

Although one communication platform has been banned, the CAO explained that
other alternatives remain viable, including Microsoft Teams, Wickr, Signal,
iMessage and FaceTime. 

The news comes shortly after the Scottish government also banned WhatsApp
(instead preferring certain enterprise messaging apps ), but that move 
relates to the deletion of messages by workers, as highlighted in the Covid
enquiry.

======================================================================
Link to news story:
https://www.techradar.com/pro/meta-hits-back-after-us-house-staffers-banned-fr
om-using-whatsapp-over-security-fears

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