WhatsApp sees five messages when users report a chat

When WhatsApp users report a person or group, the last message and the four previous messages are sent to a team of moderators. That confirms parent company Facebook after a publication of ProPublica.

ProPublica writes how more than a thousand content moderators can view messages from WhatsApp users. The site believes this does not match the chat app’s statements about end-to-end encryption and that “nobody can read along” with chats. These are messages that are reported by users within WhatsApp.

Users can report a person or group in the chat app. It is not possible to point to a specific message. Then the message appears that ‘the most recent messages’ are forwarded to WhatsApp. Only the person reporting will see that message, the other party will not. That such messages can be viewed is stated in the privacy conditions of WhatsApp.

Until now, it was not known exactly how many messages are forwarded with such a notification. ProPublica describes how Facebook moderators see the five most recent messages in a chat in such situations, including any photos or videos. Those reported messages appear in a queue to be reviewed by the employees. Facebook confirms that number.