US House Bans WhatsApp on Government Devices
(MENAFN) The United States House of Representatives has officially prohibited the use of Meta's WhatsApp messaging service on all government-distributed devices.
This restriction was implemented following a memorandum distributed to all House employees on Monday, as reported by several news agencies.
According to the memo, 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 communication was issued by the chief administrative officer responsible for overseeing the House’s technology services.
In addition to the ban, the document suggested alternative communication tools deemed safer for official use.
Recommended platforms include Amazon’s Wickr, Apple’s iMessage and FaceTime, Microsoft’s Teams application, and the encrypted messaging service Signal.
Responding to the decision, a Meta representative expressed the company’s disagreement “in the strongest possible terms.”
The spokesperson claimed that WhatsApp ensures a superior level of protection compared to the messaging apps approved in the House’s directive.
Earlier this year, a WhatsApp executive disclosed that numerous users—including journalists and civil society figures—had been targeted by the Israeli spyware firm Paragon Solutions.
This move follows a similar action in 2022, when the House barred staff from using the TikTok social networking application due to growing security apprehensions.
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