WhatsApp boss in online spat with Elon Musk

WhatsApp boss Will Cathcart has hit back at claims from Elon Musk that the messaging app "exports your user data every night."

Posting on X, Mr Cathcart said the allegation was simply "not correct". He pointed to the fact WhatsApp messages are end-to-end encrypted, meaning they cannot be read by the company at all. Yann LeCun - artificial intelligence chief at parent company, Meta - has also weighed in, using more industrial language in his X post attacking Mr Musk's claims.

On another Meta platform, Threads, Mr LeCun also levelled further criticisms at Mr Musk, accusing him of making contradictory and unrealistic claims about artificial intelligence and "spewing conspiracy theories" on his own social media platform. Mr Musk has a well-established reputation for getting himself into online rows, from submariners to sacked former employees.

In this case, Mr Cathcart is right to say only the sender and recipient of a WhatsApp message can read its contents. In fact, the firm's commitment to encrypting messages is so significant that it previously said it would rather be blocked in the UK than weaken the encryption it uses.

Mr Musk's vague language - simply saying that "user data" was being uploaded - could however be interpreted to refer to metadata, the extra bits of information sent alongside the actual message.