While we’ve seen no public instances of governments having a backdoor into WhatsApp, in May, the Israeli cyber-intelligence firm NSO Group was ordered to pay Meta $167 million after it hacked 1,400 of its users in 2019.

Meta disagreed with the move, a company spokesperson said, noting that the platform provides a higher level of security than other approved apps.

Meta’s WhatsApp messaging platform has been added to a list of apps banned from government-issued devices for congressional staffers in the US House of Representatives, a move driven by concerns about the app’s data security.