WhatsApp says it will take legal action against public claims of messaging abuses

WhatsApp has threatened legal action against those who publicly claim the ability to abuse its messaging platform, after the emergence of a raft of companies advertising products to bypass usage restrictions.

Until now, WhatsApp has focused legal action on abuses for which it had found internal evidence.

However, the Facebook-owned company said in a post titled “Unauthorized usage of WhatsApp” that from 7 Dec it would take action even if an entity merely made public claims of an ability to abuse its platform.

The company said this “serves as notice that we will take legal action against companies” for such abuses. A WhatsApp spokeswoman did not specify what sort of legal action it could take.