US House bans WhatsApp from all staff devices: This is the reason

Time of India

6 hours ago

The US House of Representatives has banned Meta-owned popular WhatsApp messaging service from all official staff devices, effective immediately, a report has said. The move marks a major rejection of one of the world's most widely used communication tools by a key branch of the US government.
Citing a memo dispatched to all House staff on Monday (June 23), news agency Reuters reported that the Office of Cybersecurity detailed the reasoning for the directive.
'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 memo, issued by the chief administrative officer, stated.
The House memo recommended several alternative messaging apps for official use, including Microsoft's Teams platform, Amazon's Wickr, the privacy-focused app Signal and Apple's native iMessage and FaceTime services.
Meta Platforms has opposed the decision. A company spokesperson said Meta disagreed with the move 'in the strongest possible terms,' asserting that its end-to-end encryption provides a higher level of security than many of the approved alternatives.
The security of WhatsApp has been a recurring subject of concern. In January, a WhatsApp official acknowledged that scores of its users, including journalists and members of civil society, had been targeted by spyware from the Israeli firm Paragon Solutions.
WhatsApp ban follows recent Telegram security lapse
The decision comes amidst heightened scrutiny of messaging app security in government circles, particularly following a recent lapse on a rival platform. Earlier this month, a senior editor from a foreign news agency was mistakenly added to a sensitive US government-related Telegram group, potentially exposing internal discussions before the error was rectified.
That incident is believed to have accelerated reviews of all third-party communication platforms used by congressional staff.
This ban is the latest in a series of actions taken by the House to regulate software on its devices. In 2022, the popular short-video app TikTok was similarly banned due to security concerns related to its parent company's ties to China.