We learned the hard way a few months ago that some U.S. government workers, including those at the highest levels, are not exactly responsible with their information sharing.
Do you remember when Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and CIA Director John Ratcliffe were caught sharing strategic information about potential military action in Yemen with a journalist who had been inadvertently added to a chat group?
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These leaders should not have been sharing such information on insecure platforms, let alone private devices, but they did.
Hegseth et al denied doing anything wrong, or anything that would endanger military personnel or allow adversaries to gain classified information, but it certainly made people outside and inside government pay attention to how sensitive information gets shared, and by whom.
WhatsApp is owned by Meta.
Image source: Fuller/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
WhatsApp has a bad reputation
Now, in a quiet but telling move, the U.S. House of Representatives has banned WhatsApp from all government-issued devices. The decision speaks volumes about how Washington views tech, trust, and the companies behind our most-used apps.
The memo landed early on June 23, instructing House staff to immediately remove the Meta-owned messaging platform.
The Office of Cybersecurity called WhatsApp a “high-risk application,” citing concerns around data security, lack of transparency, and the inability to fully monitor how information is stored and accessed on the app.
The directive came from Catherine Szpindor, the House’s Chief Administrative Officer. It included a list of safer alternatives: Microsoft Teams, Wickr, Signal, iMessage, and FaceTime.
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It seems to signal that in Washington, WhatsApp has lost the benefit of the doubt.
Despite offering industry-leading end-to-end encryption, WhatsApp is increasingly viewed skeptically by U.S. officials. That’s largely because Meta owns it. Meta has faced scrutiny for data misuse, algorithmic harm, and privacy breaches and is now being told that one of its platforms can’t be trusted on government hardware.
It’s not the first time the company has been called out for its breaches.
Meta pushed back. Spokesperson Andy Stone called the ban “misguided” and said it misunderstood WhatsApp’s protections.
Because this isn’t about encryption anymore. It’s about control. About metadata. About who holds the keys to the system, and whether federal cybersecurity teams believe they can trust them.
For many Hill staffers, the ban came as more than an inconvenience. WhatsApp has become the default way to manage everything from media coordination to cross-party scheduling. The app offered a frictionless way to communicate personally and professionally, especially in a workplace where speed and discretion are currency.
Now, they’re being told to pivot to platforms like Signal or Microsoft Teams. The result? Awkward transitions, broken group chats, and presumably lots of “What’s your new number?” messages flying around Capitol Hill.
First TikTok, now WhatsApp
This isn’t the first time Congress has taken a hard line on tech tools that dominate the consumer market. TikTok was banned from government devices in 2022. Before that, Huawei equipment was purged from critical infrastructure. And earlier this year, spyware linked to an Israeli tech firm was reportedly found targeting journalists through WhatsApp.
That last detail may have helped push this latest ban over the edge. If spyware can exploit the app outside of government, it doesn’t take much imagination to see why lawmakers would want to remove it from within.
The House’s decision doesn’t affect staffers’ personal phones, and for now, there’s no indication the Senate will follow suit. But it does mark another step in the U.S. government’s ongoing effort to regain control over its digital environment.
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It’s also another blow to Meta’s already strained relationship with Washington. The average user may not care what Congress thinks of WhatsApp, but this move could be a sign that government trust in Big Tech continues to erode.
For decades, Washington has lagged behind the tech curve. But now, with cybersecurity threats mounting and public scrutiny intensifying, the U.S. House of Representatives security teams are choosing to be proactive, even if it means deleting one of the world’s most popular apps from the pockets of its members.
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