WhatsApp Responds to Elon Musk's Claim: Don't Worry About 'Unauthorized Use' of Your Microphone

The messaging app 'WhatsApp', a subsidiary of 'Meta', responded to claims of unauthorized use of users' microphones. According to WhatsApp, this issue is due to a bug in the Android system that mistakenly indicates that the microphone of some users has been active. In another tweet, the messaging app emphasized that the microphone only works when the user is making a call or recording an audio or video message, and even in such cases, communications are protected by encryption and WhatsApp will not have access to them. The messaging app stated that due to this bug in the Android system, it has asked Google to fix the issue. Elon Musk criticized Mark Zuckerberg, the head of Meta, on Tuesday over concerns regarding user privacy. He shared a screenshot from Foad Dabiri, an Iranian Twitter employee, showing that the WhatsApp application had used his phone's microphone multiple times during the night. The screenshot indicates that Mr. Dabiri's microphone was active several times from 4:20 AM to 6:53 AM. This Iranian engineer wrote on his Twitter account: 'When I was asleep.' Elon Musk also shared this message in a tweet, stating: 'WhatsApp is not trustworthy.' Some users and technology experts have reported experiencing similar issues. On Tuesday, Elon Musk announced that Twitter plans to launch its own encrypted messaging service that is completely secure. According to him, this messaging service will allow only users in a specific chat to read their messages, and it will be inaccessible even to the company providing the service. Musk stated that encrypted direct messages on Twitter will be available to users starting May 10, when the social network's system is set to be updated. He added: 'Soon, voice and video chat from your device with anyone on this platform will be provided, and they can talk to people from anywhere in the world without giving a phone number. Mark Zuckerberg's Facebook introduced encrypted messaging in 2016. This service was later called 'Messenger Chat'. WhatsApp had introduced this messaging service before Facebook in 2012, which gained significant attention. Facebook acquired WhatsApp for $22 billion in 2014. Elon Musk is a serious critic of Mark Zuckerberg and had strongly criticized his performance and Meta's operations even before acquiring Twitter.