The U.S. Commerce Department has reportedly closed an investigation into whether Meta employees and contractors were able to read the contents of encrypted WhatsApp messages. A special agent at the federal agency reportedly spent much of 2025 investigating allegations that Meta can view WhatsApp messages, claims that the company denies.
According to a new report from Bloomberg, the unnamed agent works in the Office of Export Enforcement inside the Commerce Department and shared his findings with other federal officials in January. The agent reportedly wrote, “There is no limit to the type of WhatsApp message that can be viewed by Meta.
The agent described the supposed “misconduct of Meta and its officers,” and claimed that it involved “civil and criminal violations,” according to the news outlet. The Jan. 16 message to other officials didn’t specify which laws were apparently broken. Gizmodo could not independently confirm the contents of the message.
Meta strongly denied that anyone but the intended recipient could read WhatsApp messages since they’re encrypted. “The claim that WhatsApp can access people’s encrypted communications is patently false,” a WhatsApp spokesperson told Gizmodo in a statement emailed Tuesday.
“Months ago the Bureau of Industry and Security disavowed this purported investigation, calling its own employee’s allegations unsubstantiated and saying the agency is not investigating WhatsApp or Meta for export law violations,” the statement continued.
The investigation was “abruptly” closed, according to Bloomberg, after the agent sent out his preliminary findings in the hopes of coordinating an investigation.
Meta acquired WhatsApp in 2014, and the app has been encrypted since 2016. But the agent reportedly spent 10 months investigating and conducting interviews, believing that “Meta can and does view and store all the text messages, photographs, audio and video recordings,” according to the message seen by Bloomberg.
The agent claims that WhatsApp messages have had a “tiered permissions system” since at least 2019, and contractors have allegedly been able to access messages in some fashion. Content moderators who worked for one of those contractors, Accenture, were reportedly interviewed about their ability to access WhatsApp messages.
Gizmodo could not substantiate any of the agent’s claims, but WhatsApp has previously faced allegations that its app includes vulnerabilities that might be exploited by governments around the world. WhatsApp is used by over 2 billion people globally.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has become extremely close to President Donald Trump during his second term in office, which started in January 2025. He was among other U.S. oligarchs (like Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Apple CEO Tim Cook) seated behind Donald Trump’s family at church the day he was inaugurated. The Facebook founder donated $1 million to Trump’s inaugural committee, and Trump named Zuck to the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology just last month.
Neither Accenture nor the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security immediately responded to emailed questions from Gizmodo on Tuesday. We’ll update this article when we hear back.
Read the full article here
