UN leadership refuses correspondence in WhatsApp

The organization believes that the messenger is unsafe for communication with world leaders.
 
Senior United Nations officials have been advised not to use WhatsApp because it is considered unsafe. This was announced at a briefing on January 23 by the deputy spokesman of the UN Secretary-General Farhan Haq.
 
“At this stage, senior officials at the UN have been instructed not to use WhatsApp. (Service) is not considered a safety mechanism. So no, I don’t think the secretary-general is using it,” Haq said when asked if the U.N. secretary-general was communicating with world leaders on WhatsApp.
 
He did not comment on the possible involvement of the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia in the hacking of the phone of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos using WhatsApp.
 
“We have paid attention to what the special rapporteurs have said, and we will monitor the further development of the situation in connection with these accusations,” Haq said.
 
Earlier, the British edition of the Guardian reported that Bezos’ mobile phone was hacked using a malicious file sent to him by Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud on WhatsApp.
 
Saudi Arabia called the accusations “absurd”.
 
UN special rapporteurs Agnes Callamar and David Kaye called for an immediate investigation into the hacking.

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