WhatsApp doesn't have an open source client so verification is difficult. However, if someone were able to break the encryption, I'm sure it'd be in the headlines of most newspapers.
One exception is WhatsApp business: I don't know the details, but Facebook offers a service where they will do some chat automation for your business which means they must receive the keys.
In terms of security: key changes are automatically accepted. They are hidden by default, but by toggling a setting every time a user updates their keys, a message will be introduced into the chat. QR code key validation has been in the app for years now, though I doubt many users are using the feature.
If they're not end-to-end encrypted, they're engaging in a lot of deception to indicate that they are.
If you think you need E2EE you can really only achieve that on an open system you control and have intimate knowledge of. You can’t trust precompiled binaries.
Something something trusting trust.
This isn’t a problem technology can solve. Women shouldn’t need to be information security experts just to ask questions about their own bodies.
What does Snowden have to do with Facebook? I'm asking in good faith.
Checking to see if investigations include evidence from messages on these platforms excepting:
Messages sent by the user to someone who distributes them further
Or investigators getting control of the phone.
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WhatsApp stands up to that test.
