US authorities reportedly investigate claims that Meta can read encrypted WhatsApp messages
US authorities have reportedly investigated claims that Meta can read users’ encrypted chats on the WhatsApp messaging platform, which it owns,The reports follow a lawsuit filed last week, which claimed Meta “can access virtually all of WhatsApp users’ purportedly ‘private’ communications”,Meta has denied the allegation, reported by Bloomberg, calling the lawsuit’s claim “categorically false and absurd”,It suggested the claim was a tactic to support the NSO Group, an Israeli firm that develops spyware used against activists and journalists, and which recently lost a lawsuit brought by WhatsApp,The firm that filed last week’s lawsuit against Meta, Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, attributes the allegation to unnamed “courageous” whistleblowers from Australia, Brazil, India, Mexico and South Africa.
Quinn Emanuel is, in a separate case, helping to represent the NSO Group in its appeal against a judgment from a US federal court last year, which ordered it to pay $167m to WhatsApp for violating its terms of service in its deployment of Pegasus spyware against more than 1,400 users,“We’re pursuing sanctions against Quinn Emanuel for filing a meritless lawsuit that was designed purely to grab headlines,” said Carl Woog, a Meta spokesperson, in a statement,“This is the same firm that is trying to help NSO overturn an injunction that barred their operations for targeting journalists and government officials with spyware,”Adam Wolfson, a partner at Quinn Emanuel said: “Our colleagues’ defence of NSO on appeal has nothing to do with the facts disclosed to us and which form the basis of the lawsuit we brought for worldwide WhatsApp users,“We look forward to moving forward with those claims and note WhatsApp’s denials have all been carefully worded in a way that stops short of denying the central allegation in the complaint – that Meta has the ability to read WhatsApp messages, regardless of its claims about end-to-end encryption.
”Steven Murdoch, professor of security engineering at UCL, said the lawsuit was “a bit strange”.“It seems to be going mostly on whistleblowers, and we don’t know much about them or their credibility,” he said.“I would be very surprised if what they are claiming is actually true.”If WhatsApp were, indeed, reading users’ messages, this was likely to have been discovered by staff and would end the business, he said.“It’s very hard to keep secrets inside a company.
If there was something as scandalous as this going on, I think it’s very likely that it would have leaked out from someone within WhatsApp.”The Bloomberg article cites reports and interviews from officials within the US Department of Commerce in claiming that the US has investigated whether Meta could read WhatsApp messages.However, a spokesperson for the department called these assertions “unsubstantiated”.WhatsApp bills itself as an end-to-end encrypted platform, which means that messages can be read only by their sender and recipient, and are not decoded by a server in the middle.This contrasts with some other messaging apps, such as Telegram, which encrypt messages between a sender and its own servers, preventing third parties from reading the messages, but allowing them – in theory – to be decoded and read by Telegram itself.
A senior executive in the technology sector told the Guardian that WhatsApp’s vaunted privacy “leaves much to be desired”, given the platform’s willingness to collect metadata on its users, such as their profile information, their contact lists, and who they speak to and when.However, the “idea that WhatsApp can selectively and retroactively access the content of [end-to-end encrypted] individual chats is a mathematical impossibility”, he said.Woog, of Meta, said: “We’re pursuing sanctions against Quinn Emanuel for filing a meritless lawsuit that was designed purely to grab headlines.WhatsApp’s encryption remains secure and we’ll continue to stand up against those trying to deny people’s right to private communication.”
UK hospitality firms demand more help with business rates amid questions over Heathrow discount
Struggling hotels, restaurants and nightclubs are calling for more financial help with business rates after it emerged that Heathrow is among the biggest beneficiaries of a multibillion-pound package of state support.The UK’s biggest airport is in line for a discount of nearly £900m on its rates bill over the next three years. That is a fifth of the total £4.3bn “transitional relief” fund announced by the chancellor in the budget for all businesses facing big bill increases.Heathrow’s rates bill will still rise by £50m to £171m this year, according to figures compiled by the property firm Avison Young and first reported by the Sunday Times
Employers are spreading raises like peanut butter – and workers are paying the price | Gene Marks
Looking forward to a raise in 2026? You may be getting “peanut butter”.A new report from compensation software and data provider Payscale predicts that in 2026, many employers will be giving “peanut butter raises” to their employees – increases given “across the board” as opposed to being calculated individually based on performance or merit. They’re spread evenly, like peanut butter on a slice of bread.“In total, more than 40% of organizations are either using or actively considering standardized across-the-board or peanut butter pay increases in 2026,” the report said. “This increases to 56% for top performers (organizations who reported that they would exceed their revenue goals in 2025)
What is Moltbook? The strange new social media site for AI bots
On social media, people often accuse each other of being bots, but what happens when an entire social network is designed for AI agents to use? Moltbook is a site where the AI agents – bots built by humans – can post and interact with each other. It is designed to look like Reddit, with subreddits on different topics and upvoting. On 2 February the platform stated it had more than 1.5m AI agents signed up to the service. Humans are allowed, but only as observers
‘It’s really sad’: US TikTok users rethink app over concerns about privacy and censorship
Many TikTok users across the US say they’re rethinking their relationship with the platform since its ownership and terms and conditions have recently changed, with some citing censorship and lack of trust as reasons why they’re removing themselves from the app.Keara Sullivan, a 26-year-old comedian, says TikTok jumpstarted her career and provided a pathway to getting a manager and a literary agent.“I’m not one of those creators who’s a TikTok hater,” said Sullivan, who has more than half a million followers on the platform. “I’m very transparent about the fact that where I am in my career is largely because of TikTok.”That’s why, she said, it’s “really sad” for her to step away from the platform – at least for now
‘Work of art’: Japanese volleyballer takes sorry to extremes with headfirst sliding apology
If Yuji Nishida ever decides to give up volleyball, he might want to take up the skeleton.In a moment of chivalry that has been widely shared online, the Japanese player displayed majestic sliding skills as he took a traditional apology to extremes after inadvertently striking a courtside judge with the ball at the weekend.The 26-year-old, who was taking part in a half-time serving challenge at a volleyball all-star event in Kobe in western Japan, looked horrified as his left-handed serve veered off the court and struck the female judge squarely on her back.By the time the uninjured judge had regained her composure, Nishida’s 186cm frame was sliding quickly along the ground towards her, his nose down and his hands by his side, triggering laughter and applause among the spectators and his teammates.Nishida was not finished, however
UK Sport urges BBC to boost coverage of Olympic sports between Games
The chair of UK Sport has called on the BBC to show more of Team GB’s “fantastic athletes” between Olympic Games and says there is significant public appetite for more coverage on free-to-air TV.Nick Webborn said he expected millions to tune into the BBC’s coverage of Milan Cortina 2026, which begins on Friday, but urged the broadcaster, as a publicly-funded body, to show more Olympic sports between each Summer and Winter Games.Webborn also cited a new survey commissioned by UK Sport, which found that 69% of the public wanted Olympic sports broadcast more regularly on free-to-air TV, with 66% of respondents calling for more Paralympic sports to be shown too.Asked whether the BBC should do more, Webborn said: “I believe so. We found that nearly 70% of the British public would like more Olympic and parasport between Games on free-to-air, and we’re having discussions with the BBC about how we might do that
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