Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued WhatsApp and its parent company, Meta Platforms Inc., on Thursday, alleging the messaging app misleads users about its security features.
The lawsuit accuses the companies of deceptive trade practices by telling users their messages on WhatsApp are securely encrypted while allegedly maintaining access to virtually all private communications.
The lawsuit seeks to bar Meta and WhatsApp from accessing Texans’ WhatsApp messages without their consent, as well as impose monetary penalties.
Paxton cited news reports of a federal investigation and a whistleblower report to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
“Texans deserve to know whether their private communications are indeed truly private,” Paxton said in a statement on May 21. “WhatsApp markets its services as secure and encrypted, but it does not deliver on those promises. I am suing to protect Texans’ privacy and ensure that WhatsApp by Meta does not mislead Texans by unlawfully accessing private conversations and data.”
The state lawsuit focuses on how WhatsApp presents its encryption to consumers. The company promises that only senders and recipients can read messages, yet the company maintains broader access.
The lawsuit comes after a whistleblower report to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and separate reports about a federal investigation into claims that Meta had access to unencrypted WhatsApp messages.
Meta did not immediately return a request for comment, but spokesman Andy Stone said on social media that the lawsuit’s allegations are false and that WhatsApp cannot access people’s encrypted communications.
Texas has pursued several high-profile actions against Big Tech over privacy violations in recent years. In November 2025, the state finalized a more than $1.3 billion settlement with Google over alleged unlawful tracking, data collection, and deceptive practices involving location data, biometric identifiers, and Incognito mode, one of the largest single-state privacy settlements in U.S. history.
“This historic $1.375 billion price tag for Google’s misconduct sends a clear warning to all of Big Tech that I will take aggressive action against any company that misuses Texans’ data and violates their privacy,” Paxton said in the statement at the time.
Earlier, in July 2024, Meta agreed to pay Texas $1.4 billion to settle claims that it unlawfully captured biometric data from Facebook users without permission.
Paxton also sued Netflix in May, accusing the streaming service of spying on children and other consumers by collecting data without consent.
Paxton has positioned himself as one of Big Tech’s staunchest state-level adversaries. The lawsuit was filed under the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act, the state’s main consumer protection law.
Reuters contributed to this report
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