Members of the US House of Representatives were informed on Monday that they cannot use WhatsApp on their work devices due to data protection concerns, Axios reported.
“The Office of Cybersecurity has designated WhatsApp as a high-risk app for users due to its lack of transparency around protecting user data, its lack of encryption for stored data, and the potential security risks associated with its use,” the House Administration Office wrote in an email obtained by Axios.
The message states that members of the House of Representatives cannot download or have this messenger on their official devices.
Andy Stone, a spokesman for Meta, which owns WhatsApp, said in a statement to Axios that Meta rejects the criticism from the House Administration Office. “We know that members and their colleagues use WhatsApp regularly, and we expect that House members will be able to join their Senate colleagues in doing so in an official capacity,” he added.
The spokesperson noted that WhatsApp messages are encrypted by default, so only the recipients can see them.
“This is a higher level of security than most apps on the administration's approved list, which do not offer this level of protection,” he said.
As Axios noted, in recent years there have also been at least partial bans on members of the House of Representatives using the DeepSeek chatbot, an app from ByteDance, and Microsoft’s Copilot AI software. The ability to use the ChatGPT chatbot has also been restricted, with employees only being able to use its paid version, ChatGPT Plus.
From Washington Natalia Dziurdzińska (PAP)
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