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Comment by mrtksn | Hacker News Reader

I wonder how these investigations go? Are they just asking them if it is true? Are they working with IT specialist to technically analyze the apps? Are they requesting the source code that can be demonstrated to be the same one that runs on the user devices and then analyze that code?

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Anyone can audit the client binaries

That will be step 1. Fear of being caught lying to the government is such that that is usually enough. Presumably at least a handful of people would have to know about it, and nobody likes their job at Facebook enough to go to jail over it.

But you never know.

Companies lie to governments and the public all the time. I doubt that even if something were found and the case were lost, it would lead to prison or any truly severe punishment. No money was stolen and no lives were put at risk. At worst, it would likely end in a fine, and then it would be forgotten, especially given Meta’s repeated violations of user trust.

The reality is that most users do not seem to care. For many, WhatsApp is simply “free SMS,” tied to a phone number, so it feels familiar and easy to understand, and the broader implications are ignored.

Martha Stewart went to jail for lying to the government. The fact that there would be no punishment is why they would tell the truth.

The government is pretty harsh when they find out you lied under oath. Corporate officers do not lie to the government frequently.

Multiple governments will already know as they have analyzed and reverse engineered it.

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