The US Congress bans employees from installing WhatsApp due to cybersecurity risks.

One of the main features Meta advertises for its WhatsApp messaging app is its end-to-end encryption, which makes it impossible for anyone outside the conversation to read it. But the US House of Representatives doesn't seem to have been satisfied with that mechanism: Congress has just banned all its employees, from representatives to ushers, from installing the app, citing its "lack of transparency" and other weaknesses.

According to an internal document seen by Reuters and Axios, the Congressional Office of Cybersecurity says that " WhatsApp poses a high risk to users due to a lack of transparency in how it protects user data, the lack of encryption of stored data, and potential security risks associated with its use."

Four days ago, the Iranian government asked its citizens to delete this app, claiming that Israeli intelligence had accessed Meta's system and was using it to plan attacks. The company has denied these accusations, but the US Congress appears concerned enough about the possibility of unauthorized access by a foreign power to ban it.

WhatsApp joins a string of apps banned for security reasons in the US legislature. Congress has already blocked DeepSeek, TikTok, and Microsoft Copilot, and advised employees to only use the paid version of ChatGPT , amid fears that AI apps are using sensitive conversations to train their models.