Social media giants are among the few things in our divided culture that can elicit negative responses on both sides of the political aisle.
And now, one red state is trying to do something about the mounting privacy concerns at one tech giant.
The Daily Caller reported on Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s recent lawsuit against Meta, which owns WhatsApp:
The lawsuit states that WhatsApp markets its service to use end-to-end encryption, which means only the sender and receiver can access the messages. However, insider accounts have reported claims of the Mark Zuckerberg-founded Meta presenting WhatsApp as encrypted to be false according to the suit and a Thursday press release from Paxton’s office.
ADVERTISEMENT“WhatsApp markets its services as secure and encrypted, but it does not deliver on those promises. I am suing to protect Texans’ privacy and ensure that WhatsApp by Meta does not mislead Texans by unlawfully accessing private conversations and data,” Paxton said in his press release.
Paxton is bringing these claims under the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act for WhatsApp allegedly misleading users by claiming that their conversations are encrypted, the Texas Tribune reported.
“With end-to-end encryption on WhatsApp, your personal messages and calls are secured with a lock. Only you and the person you’re talking to can read or listen to them, and no one else, not even WhatsApp,” WhatsApp states on its website.
Appropriately, the lawsuit has fueled discussion across social media platforms, including X:
Finally someones calling out the encrypted fine print that apparently only encrypts their bank account 🔐 Curious to see if Metas legal team can explain this one without a 50-page terms & conditions document. 📋
— Tison alpha news (@MarketAlphaHQ) May 21, 2026
This lawsuit shows how governments are beginning to hold tech giants accountable for transparency.
— Khalifa Daniro (@daniroHQ) May 22, 2026
Of course, Meta remains defiant for now:
Meta called the allegations 'baseless' and said it will fight the lawsuit in court. The Texas AG is also a US Senate candidate.
— 38twelveDaily (@38twelveDaily) May 23, 2026
Meanwhile, Paxton is also pursuing a seat in the US Senate and has been cruising in recent days on a boost provided by President Donald Trump’s endorsement.
PBS provided this report in the days leading up to this week’s primary run-off election between Paxton and incumbent Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX):
“I don’t know if y’all noticed this, but Donald Trump endorsed me,” Paxton told a small rally in a town outside Austin, inciting whoops and applause from the crowd.
Tuesday’s election has drawn national attention and gobs of money. It also has become the latest campaign in which Trump is encouraging voters to oust a politician who has displeased him and elect a challenger more aligned with the president. That effort has been largely successful for Trump. Earlier this week, U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky lost in the GOP primary to Ed Gallrein, Trump’s handpicked candidate. Trump also has succeeded in defeating incumbents in Louisiana and Indiana.
Paxton has been turning his focus to the Democratic nominee, state Rep. James Talarico. Paxton opened his event Thursday with attacks on Talarico, a sign of his confidence heading into the runoff.
Here’s some additional coverage of the Meta lawsuit:
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