The increasing popularity of WhatsApp in the workplace has altered the communication makeup of all components of modern society – including the government sector .
For the past couple of years, government units around the world have been quick in adopting mobile platforms, including secure chat apps in an effort to enhance collaboration and protect their communication lines. However, with the enactment of the “Right to Know” Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), citizens can also request access to those communications.
While relatively new, WhatsApp has already faced intense scrutiny from both a variety of government entities and FOIA advocates. The platform’s end-to-end encryption has managed to both entice security-conscious individuals and arouse concern of abuse by some government officials to hide their conversations from law enforcement and public scrutiny.
While requesting archived WhatsApp chats remains a challenge in most countries, it has not prevented people from exercising their constitutional right, nor the regulators from investigating the government units to determine if they are complying with the recordkeeping requirements under public records law.
The following are recent cases where WhatsApp conversations by public officials were requested under FOIA laws:
Jared Kushner and Various Federal Agencies and State Officials
In May 2019, the American Oversight requested records of WhatsApp conversations of Jared Kushner. As President Donald Trump’s senior adviser and son-in-law, Kushner was reportedly using the encrypted messaging app to conduct official business with various state officials and federal agencies, including Treasury, Trade Representative, Office of Management and Budget, and Housing and Urban Development.
The FOIA request concerning the WhatsApp messages of Kushner has gained prominent media attention amidst the allegation that some senior White House officials are using personal email and messaging accounts for official business – a direct violation of Presidential Records Act. This ostensible violation was publicized only in 2018 when CNN reported that Kushner was also using his personal WhatsApp to communicate with Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman.
It can be noted that it was also the same organization that filed FOIA requests with the Departments of Commerce, Education, Labor, the Treasury, and the Small Business Administration in March 2017 – mainly seeking emails or texts between Ivanka Trump or anyone on her behalf and political appointees.
According to American Oversight, access to such conversations will “shed light on Mr. Kushner’s influence on federal policy and high-ranking agency officials.”
Irish Officials and Brexit
While the U.S. government is on the forefront of WhatsApp-FOIA controversies, in Ireland WhatsApp was also requested under FOIA. In 2017, the FOI Directory revealed that a request was made to the Department of Taoiseach after a government WhatsApp group was revealed in a news report.
The contents of the discussion group were requested by RTÉ’s This Week programme following the existence of the group being revealed in The Sunday Times in June, after the result of the British referendum on EU membership.
According to reports, the WhatsApp group was set up by the press office to manage official releases sent by departments after the UK Brexit vote and was also used to discussed public responses to the vote from other parties.
Former PM David Cameron and Aides
In 2016, a Senior Tory warned of attempts by the aides of the former Prime Minister Cameron to circumvent FOI request by using the encrypted messaging service as they discussed tactics to keep Britain in the EU.
According to an interview with The Sun, Tory grandee David Davis said, “Attempts to avoid the Freedom of Information Act in what is supposed to be a legitimate activity will lead to scandal and embarrassment.”
Maurice Frankel of the Campaign for Freedom of Information told Mail Online that while “there were existing exemptions in the law that allow ministers to have private discussions on policy formulation,” public officials “…should not need to be going to lengths to avoid freedom of information.”
In 2018, certain Top Tories were also accused of “hiding” official government WhatsApp messages which reveal how they kept PM Theresa May in power. While Cabinet Officials claimed the messages are exempt from FOIA laws because they are political in nature, FOI expert Matthew Burgess said, “Technology shouldn’t be used as an excuse to circumvent openness.”
Conclusion
The mission of FOIA laws is to ensure transparency in the government and make officials and employees accountable for their activities. Without the capability to capture and record WhatsApp chats of the officials and employees, the national, state, and local government offices are at grave risk of losing public trust in case they fail to provide those records under FOIA request.
With TeleMessage, public agencies can easily comply with the Public Records, FOIA, and Sunshine Laws requirements on archiving text messages. The TeleMessage’s WhatsApp Archiver is a unique platform tailor-made to solve WhatsApp compliance and regulation issues by allowing financial firms to capture and archive WhatsApp messages including conversations that transpired in group messaging threads. This platform works exactly like the standard WhatsApp application, ensuring that your employees will still be able to send work-related communications easily and quickly.
The benefits of using WhatsApp Archiver in your business include:
- Archive all WhatsApp communications
- Use WhatsApp to communicate with customers, employees, and stakeholders
- Search, track and retrieve WhatsApp messages in the corporate archive
- Deposit WhatsApp messages with any email archiving vendor
- Full administration and reporting
The TeleMessage WhatsApp Archiver is the latest addition to our mobile archiving products that securely capture content from mobile carriers and mobile devices for a variety of ownership models (BYOD, CYOD, and employer-issued). With our multiple archiving methods, you can always find the right tools or blend for your requirements:
Visit our website today at www.telemessage.com to learn more about how our mobile archiving products can help your organization maintain compliance with government text archiving regulations.
