Telegram CEO Pavel Durov has sharply criticized WhatsApp, calling its end-to-end encryption claims a “giant fraud” and accusing the platform of misleading users about its security standards.
In a series of strong remarks made on May 23, 2026, Durov alleged that WhatsApp’s security marketing was “the biggest consumer fraud in history,” claiming that users are wrongly led to believe their conversations are fully protected.
His comments followed a lawsuit filed in the U.S. state of Texas against WhatsApp’s parent company Meta, which alleges that employees or contractors may have access to “virtually all” private messages.
Durov further claimed that a large portion of WhatsApp messages, up to 95%, are ultimately stored as unencrypted backups on cloud services such as Google and Apple, arguing that this undermines the platform’s encryption protections.
He also referenced legal filings suggesting the use of internal tools or “backdoors” to access flagged conversations for moderation or fraud prevention purposes.
It is worth mentioning that Meta has strongly rejected these allegations, calling them “categorically false” and describing both the lawsuit and Durov’s claims as “frivolous work of fiction.” The company maintains that its encryption systems remain secure and user privacy is fully protected.
