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Claim: A WhatsApp audio allegedly features the Enugu State Commissioner of Police, Kanayo Uzuegbu, announcing that security agencies will monitor the WhatsApp chats and calls of Nigerians.
Verdict: False! DUBAWA’s findings show that the Nigerian Police or any other law enforcement agencies cannot independently monitor Nigerians’ WhatsApp or Facebook calls and messages. The end-to-end encryption feature of these platforms makes it impossible.
Full Text
An audio recently circulated on WhatsApp with claims that the Nigerian police will now monitor the chats and calls of WhatsApp and Facebook users.
The speaker, alleged to be Kanayo Uzuegbu, the Commissioner of Police, Enugu State, warned that messages directly attacking any official brand will receive two blue ticks and one red tick. He also said messages directly insulting the government or official personnel with a court order will receive one blue tick and two red ticks.
“WhatsApp and WhatsApp calls will be monitored starting tomorrow. All calls will be recorded, and all call recordings will be saved. WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and all social media will be monitored. Your devices will connect to the ministry’s system. Nobody should speak against the government; doing so can lead to arrest without a warrant. The police will ensure notification, then be secreted by very serious cybercrime,” the speaker said.
A screenshot of the viral audio. Photo source: WhatsApp.
Whether or not insulting government officials is considered a criminal offence has been a debate on X in the past few days. This was further aggravated by the recent arrest of an activist who allegedly cursed the president’s son, Seyi Tinubu. As if that is not enough, Muyiwa Adejobi, the Nigerian Police Spokesperson, also tweeted that cursing someone online is a punishable criminal offence.
Mr Adejobi’s controversial tweet. Photo source: X.
But whether he was aware or not, the law he referred to had already been repealed, and that sparked a controversy among lawyers who called Mr Adejobi ignorant.
DUBAWA conducted this fact-check due to the audio’s virality and potential for misinformation.
Verification
If true, it would not be strange for an event of that nature to dominate the news. However, DUBAWA observed that no news platform reported that security agencies would now monitor social media platforms.
We found that this claim is not new, as a similar version has been in circulation since 2020. For instance, a Facebook user, Oluseyi Babatunde, posted it on his timeline on Feb. 5, 2020. Oluwole Coker, another Facebook user, shared the same claim on April 20, 2020. Likewise, Chinwendu C. E Rays shared the claim on May 29, 2024.
DUBAWA also found that the Enugu State Police Command has debunked the viral audio. In an October 31, 2024, statement on its X handle, the command clarified the audio was misleading and announced an investigation to identify and arrest its originators.
The statement partly read, “The Enugu State Police Command is aware of a viral audio recording featuring the photograph of the Commissioner of Police, purportedly sharing new communication rules for WhatsApp chats and calls. The Command strongly condemns this audio, labelling it as misleading and malicious. The public is advised to disregard the audio, as it does not represent any official communication from the Command. It is essential to note that WhatsApp, owned by Meta, is a reputable international organisation that would not use such third-party sources to announce changes to its services.”
End-to-end encryption and what it means for WhatsApp users
WhatsApp’s privacy policy emphasises the protection of user messages through end-to-end encryption, which ensures that only the sender and recipient can read messages. This means that WhatsApp itself, as well as its parent company Meta, cannot access the content of personal conversations, including chats, calls, and shared locations.
Additionally, users have control over their privacy settings, allowing them to manage who can view their profile picture or last seen status. These methods, put together, are how WhatsApp ensures that personal conversations remain secure and private from unauthorised access.
Contrary to the claim made in the audio, there is no such thing as a red tick on WhatsApp chat indicators. A single non-coloured tick means the message has been sent, while double non-coloured ticks indicate the message has been delivered. Double blue ticks show that the receiver has read the message. On the flip side, if the receiver has turned off their “read receipts,” the double ticks will remain non-coloured even if the message has been read.
‘About government requests for user data’
While all these are obtainable, WhatsApp does share metadata with law enforcement agencies when legally required. This metadata can include information such as the user’s phone number and the duration of service but does not reveal the content of conversations.
WhatsApp has a dedicated Law Enforcement Response Team (LERT) that evaluates government data requests and asserts that it only complies with valid legal requests.
“Government agencies from all over the world send WhatsApp requests for user data. We share details about these requests and our responses twice a year in Meta’s Government Requests for User Data Report. WhatsApp requires government agencies that make requests to comply with applicable law, our policies (including our Privacy Policy), and, in certain scenarios, to use the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty process,” WhatsApp privacy policy reads.
“WhatsApp cannot and does not produce the content of its user’s messages in response to government requests. The content of all messages sent using WhatsApp is protected by the same Signal encryption protocol that secures messages before they leave your device, which ensures only you and the person you’re communicating with can listen to or read what you’re sending, and nobody in between, not even WhatsApp.”
Conclusion
Our findings reveal that neither the Nigerian Police nor any other law enforcement agency can independently monitor WhatsApp or Facebook calls and messages due to the platforms’ end-to-end encryption, which makes such surveillance impossible.
