A lady walks previous a emblem of WhatsApp, throughout a Meta occasion in Mumbai, India, 20 September, 2023.
Niharika Kulkarni | Nurphoto | Getty Photos
Meta is pushing again towards a ban on WhatsApp from authorities gadgets.
The Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) of the U.S. Home of Representatives advised staffers on Monday that they aren’t allowed to make use of Meta’s in style messaging app. The CAO cited a scarcity of transparency about WhatsApp’s knowledge privateness and safety practices as the explanation for the ban, in keeping with a report by Axios that cited an inside e mail from the federal government workplace.
The CAO advised Home employees members within the e mail that they aren’t allowed to obtain WhatsApp on their authorities gadgets or entry the app on their smartphones or desktop computer systems, the report stated. Employees members should take away WhatsApp from their gadgets if they’ve the app put in on their gadgets, the report stated.
Meta spokesperson Andy Stone on Monday responded to the report through a post on X, saying that the corporate disagrees “with the Home Chief Administrative Officer’s characterization within the strongest potential phrases.”
“We all know members and their staffs recurrently use WhatsApp and we look ahead to making certain members of the Home can be a part of their Senate counterparts in doing so formally,” Stone stated.
In a separate X post, Stone stated that WhatsApp’s encrypted nature gives a “larger stage of safety than a lot of the apps on the CAO’s authorised checklist that don’t supply that safety.”
A number of the messaging apps that the CAO stated are acceptable alternate options to WhatsApp embody Microsoft Groups, Sign and Apple’s iMessage, the Axios report stated.
The CAO didn’t reply to a request for remark.
Meta is presently embroiled in an antitrust case with the Federal Commerce Fee over the social media firm’s acquisitions of WhatsApp and Instagram.
Final week, Meta debuted ads in WhatsApp in an effort to monetize the app that CEO Mark Zuckerberg has deemed “the next chapter” for his firm’s historical past.
WATCH: Watch CNBC’s full interview with Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth.
