00:00And the messaging service WhatsApp has been banned from all U.S. House of Representatives devices.
00:06The ban has reportedly come into play due to a high risk to users in terms of the protection of data.
00:15Gosh. OK, Rawia, WhatsApp, back in the headlines here.
00:21But this isn't the first app ban that members of the U.S. House of Representatives have had.
00:28But why WhatsApp?
00:30I'll tell you in a minute, but definitely this wasn't the first time that this happens or something similar happens.
00:36TikTok was banned, as you remember, in 2022 from the House devices.
00:38But I think that's because people were scrolling.
00:41They were doom scrolling and they weren't doing their work.
00:43At the time, they cited security reasons and security issues.
00:46But, I mean, which are the same reasons that are cited here.
00:49But let me just be very specific about these reasons.
00:52The Office of Cybersecurity has deemed WhatsApp a risk, a high risk to users because of the lack of transparency, as they say, in how it protects its user data.
01:03And because of absence of stored data encryption and because of potential security risks involving or involved with its use.
01:12Now, Meta had a response and ironically, the response basically disagreed with this move altogether and in the strongest possible terms, as they said.
01:24And they said that, in fact, WhatsApp has much higher security levels than most of the other apps that have been recommended.
01:32One, you will tell us about them in a minute.
01:36But the thing is, we have to remember another incident that had to do with WhatsApp.
01:41Apparently, in January, a WhatsApp official said Israeli spyware company Paragon Solutions has actually targeted scores of WhatsApp users, including and that included journalists, politicians and even civil society.
01:56I don't know if this ban of WhatsApp from the House of Representatives devices is related to this incident that happened in January or not.
