SAN FRANCISCO, 8 September 2025 — Attaullah Baig, the former head of security at WhatsApp, has filed a federal lawsuit alleging that Meta Platforms Inc. fired him in retaliation after he repeatedly raised alarms over serious cybersecurity vulnerabilities. The lawsuit, lodged in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, accuses company leaders of ignoring concerns even when they escalated matters as far as the Chief Executive Officer, Mark Zuckerberg.
Baig claims that he was unjustly terminated in February on the grounds of “poor performance.” However, his lawsuit contends that the true motive behind his dismissal stemmed from mounting pressure he faced after alerting regulators, including notifying the Securities and Exchange Commission and filing a retaliation complaint with the Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
The former security chief says he uncovered systemic cybersecurity failures as early as 2021, shortly after taking on the position at WhatsApp. His concerns included compliance breaches of federal securities laws, violations of a Federal Trade Commission order that demanded enhanced privacy protections and a $5 billion penalty for Facebook, as well as potential infractions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.
In his complaint, Baig alleges that Meta’s internal security safeguards enabled approximately 1,500 WhatsApp engineers to access sensitive user data without restriction. Alarmingly, this access reportedly exposed around 100,000 accounts daily to the risk of hijacking. He also asserts that security reports had been falsified to conceal decisions not to remediate data exfiltration threats, a move that could result in criminal liability.
Legal representation for Baig, including the nonprofit Psst.org, argues that Meta chose to attack the messenger rather than address the issues he raised. Psst attorney Jennifer Gibson said she “couldn’t think of another company with as many whistleblowers as Meta.”
Meta’s response, articulated via WhatsApp’s VP of Global Communications Carl Woog, dismissed Baig’s allegations as distorted and unrepresentative of the company’s ongoing efforts. Woog described the claims as part of a “familiar playbook,” where a terminated employee seeks to mischaracterise the work of their team.
In his lawsuit, Baig is requesting reinstatement to a position reflecting the seniority he would have retained absent discrimination, along with back pay and compensation for emotional distress and other damages.
The case, Baig v. Meta Platforms, Inc., has been officially filed in the Northern District of California, under the docket number 3:25-cv-07604.
Source: Bloomberg
