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News 2. Cybersecurity and Data Protection European civil servants are being forced off WhatsApp Governments want to move away from "platforms over which we have no control," says Dutch minister. Listen AI generated Text-to-speech * Copy Link Copied * Share via email * Share on X * Share on WhatsApp * Share on LinkedIn Free article usually reserved for subscribers In this photo illustration, the WhatsApp Messenger logo is The move toward government-controlled messaging apps is part of Europe's search for alternatives to American technology. | Thomas Fuller/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images This article is also available in: French April 15, 2026 6:00 am CET By Sam Clark BRUSSELS -- European governments are getting WhatsApp and Signal out of their system. Governments in France, Germany, Poland, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Belgium have started rolling out in-house messaging services for officials to exchange sensitive information, in an effort to stop staff from using popular encrypted apps and switch to local alternatives they can control. Defense alliance NATO also has its own messenger, and the European Commission plans to make the switch by the end of the year. The move toward government-controlled messaging apps is part of Europe's search for alternatives to American technology, sparked by fears of being strategically dependent on Washington. WhatsApp is owned by U.S. tech giant Meta, while Signal is run by a U.S.-based non-profit and managed by a large community of open-source software enthusiasts. Advertisement Advertisement The effort to unplug from American companies also reflects growing recognition among governments of the vulnerabilities of mainstream messaging apps for sharing sensitive information between politicians. "Our communication currently often takes place via platforms over which we have no control," Willemijn Aerdts, the Netherlands' digital minister, told POLITICO in a statement. "In a world where technology is increasingly being used as a tool of power, that poses a risk." Brandon De Waele, the director of Belgian Secure Communications, the Belgian federal government agency in charge of its new secure app, said: "Everyone in Europe is getting more and more awake on sovereignty ... For us it's data sovereignty." WhatsApp and Signal have faced cybersecurity challenges in recent weeks. Last month, dozens of cybersecurity agencies warned that Russian hacking groups were targeting political and government officials on the messengers with high-level phishing attacks. The risks also became painfully apparent in Brussels: The European Commission told some of its most senior officials to shut down a group on messaging app Signal, POLITICO reported this month, and the EU was the victim of a string of cybersecurity breaches affecting, among other things, its mobile devices management system. 'Just not built for that' Belgium was the latest European government to unveil an in-house secure messaging service last month, for use by public officials for sensitive but unclassified information. Members of the federal government -- including Prime Minister Bart De Wever -- are now encouraged to use an app called BEAM, which comes with all the features of familiar apps like WhatsApp and Signal, but which operates under the control of the government. Advertisement Advertisement There is no suggestion that apps like Signal and WhatsApp, which use end-to-end encryption, the gold standard for messaging security, are more unsecure than their alternatives. Much of what's driving the shift is a need for features like access controls, the ability to only allow chats between specific people, and control over metadata that show where and when calls and messages are made and sent. Using consumer apps for big organizations is "really a risky move," said Benjamin Schilz, the chief executive of Wire, a secure communications app used by the German government. They're "just not built for that." Some of those features would have helped defend against a recent Russian spying campaign carried out via WhatsApp and Signal, said Belgium's De Waele. "With us, because it's a closed environment with only government employees, you can also avoid that," he said. [GettyImages-2264943495-1024x683]WhatsApp and Signal have faced cybersecurity challenges in recent weeks. | Matthias Balk/picture alliance via Getty Images For transparency campaigners, the move to government-controlled apps is long overdue. Democracy groups have lamented how end-to-end encrypted communication and cybersecurity policies such as disappearing messages on consumer apps have pushed important decisions into the shadows. Commission President Ursula von der Leyen last year faced a no-confidence vote (which was ultimately unsuccessful) in part over access to messages she exchanged with Pfizer Chief Executive Officer Albert Bourla before a multibillion-euro vaccine deal, and which she failed to disclose. Trump boost Those working with European governments on in-house solutions have noticed a clear shift since United States President Donald Trump reentered office at the start of last year. Advertisement Advertisement "The difference we've really noticed over the last 12 months is the urgency from governments," said Matthew Hodgson, chief executive of Element, a company that built tech used by multiple European governments for secure messaging apps. Hodgson and others attribute the sudden acceleration to a few specific events such as Signalgate, when top Trump administration officials exchanged classified military plans on Signal, and the U.S. sanctions against the International Criminal Court that resulted in a prosecutor being shut off from his email last year. A major Amazon Web Services outage in October also revealed with striking clarity Europe's reliance on American tech. For others, the decision is more practical than philosophical. "This trend is about reconciling a difference between how official communications maybe should happen, and how they're in fact happening in practice," said Lindsay Gorman, managing director at the German Marshall Fund. "The bigger move is just [addressing] the discrepancy between how government should communicate and how people just are communicating," Gorman said. 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