Facebook denies report claiming WhatsApp messages are not end-to-end encrypted

WhatsApp has always boasted of its end-to-end encryption system that lets the private conversation remain only between the sender and the receiver. The Facebook-owned messaging app has time and again reiterated that nobody apart from the people involved in the conversation can access it, not even WhatsApp or its parent company Facebook. However, a new report had exposed some shocking details about WhatsApp’s end-to-end encryption method. The report stated that contrary to the company’s claims, the messages are not end-to-end encrypted. Facebook has now issued a new statement refuting the claims of the report.

“WhatsApp provides a way for people to report spam or abuse, which includes sharing the most recent messages in a chat. This feature is important for preventing the worst abuse on the internet. We strongly disagree with the notion that accepting reports a user chooses to send us is incompatible with end-to-end encryption,” WhatsApp said in a statement to Android Central

A ProPublica report titled “How Facebook Undermines Privacy Protections for Its 2 Billion WhatsApp Users” claimed that WhatsApp has more than 1,000 contract workers in Austin, Texas Dublin and Singapore where they examine millions of pieces of users’ content. The report highlights that the works use a special Facebook software to sneak into a person’s private WhatsApp messages, gain access to the images and videos sent through the messaging app.

Seated at computers in pods organized by work assignments, these hourly workers use special Facebook software to sift through streams of private messages, images and videos that have been reported by WhatsApp users as improper and then screened by the company’s artificial intelligence systems. These contractors pass judgment on whatever flashes on their screen — claims of everything from fraud or spam to child porn and potential terrorist plotting — typically in less than a minute,” the report claimed.

However, the report notes that the conversations that are flagged by either or the people involved in the conversation is accessed by WhatsApp’s team of content moderators. It is also important to note that WhatsApp only forwards lasts five messages it to its people after content is reported. This clearly means that the messaging app does not share the entire chat history with its people.

ProPublica also got in touch with the contact workers, but they informed the publication that they were employed by Accenture and were made to sign sweeping non-disclosure agreements.