AUSTIN, Texas — Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit on Thursday against messaging platform WhatsApp and its parent company Meta Platforms, alleging violations of Texas data privacy law over claims related to user encryption and data access.
The lawsuit, filed in a state district court in Harrison County, accuses WhatsApp and Meta of misleading users by advertising “end-to-end encryption,” which the filing describes as technology that prevents access to message content by anyone other than the sender and recipient.
Paxton’s office brought the case under the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act. The filing asks the court to issue a permanent injunction preventing the companies from accessing user messages without consent and to impose civil penalties for alleged violations.
Meta denied the allegations. A company spokesperson stated that WhatsApp cannot access encrypted communications and said any claim that it can is false. Meta also said it will contest the lawsuit.
Paxton’s office cited whistleblower allegations in support of its claims that Meta may have access to messages sent on WhatsApp. The lawsuit also referenced a federal Commerce Department inquiry that closed earlier this year, according to reporting cited in the filing.
The action follows other recent legal cases brought by Paxton’s office involving technology companies, including a separate lawsuit against Netflix and previous settlements with Meta and Google over consumer privacy allegations.
