U.S. authorities have launched an inquiry following claims by former contractors of Meta Platforms that company employees allegedly had unrestricted access to WhatsApp users’ correspondence, Bloomberg reports.
According to the agency, in 2025 special agents from the U.S. Department of Commerce examined testimony from two individuals who worked under contract for Meta through the consulting firm Accenture PLC as WhatsApp content moderators. In interviews with investigators, they said they were able to view the contents of users’ messages and claimed that some Meta employees had similar access. One Bloomberg source said the investigation was still ongoing as of January 2026, though it remains unclear whether any specific suspects have been identified.
Similar allegations against Meta had previously appeared in a complaint filed by an anonymous whistleblower with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in 2024. As Bloomberg notes, neither the complaint itself nor any subsequent investigation has been publicly disclosed to date.
Meta, which acquired WhatsApp in 2014, has rejected these claims. Company spokesperson Andy Stone said in an email to journalists: “What these individuals are alleging is impossible, because WhatsApp, its employees, and its contractors do not have access to users’ encrypted messages.”
Meta presents WhatsApp as a messenger built around a privacy-first architecture with end-to-end encryption. The service’s website states that this system means only users themselves can access their messages, and that no third party—including WhatsApp employees—can read, listen to, or forward the correspondence. The company also points to this confidentiality when responding to requests from government authorities seeking user data in the context of criminal investigations.