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SAN FRANCISCO (CN) — A judge granted a motion to dismiss a case Monday against tech giant Meta brought by a former WhatsApp employee attempting to blow the whistle on cybersecurity issues within the company.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Laurel Beeler ruled to toss the claims brought by plaintiff Attaullah Baig, former head of cybersecurity at WhatsApp, a global messaging platform owned by Meta. Baig had sued the company, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and other top-ranking employees, claiming his supervisors fire him in retaliation for reporting violations of federal law.
Baig contended Meta violated rules of the Securities and Exchange Commission regarding cybersecurity disclosures, committed securities and wire fraud. He also says the company failed to maintain appropriate internal accounting controls when he supposedly found security flaws, including the possibility of WhatsApp employees having access to sensitive user information.
He further claimed he tried to bring the issues to the attention of Meta and WhatsApp higher-ups between September 2021 and September 2022, but was ignored and eventually dismissed after filing a report with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
“Today’s ruling reaffirms what we’ve said all along: these claims have no merit,” a WhatsApp spokesperson said in an email. “Mr. Baig’s allegations misrepresent the hard work of our security team. We’re proud of our strong record of protecting people’s privacy and security, and will continue building on it.”
One of his claims was brought under Section 806 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, or SOX, which protects employees of publicly traded companies from discrimination when they report conduct they reasonably believe constitutes securities fraud, wire fraud, bank fraud, mail fraud, any rule or regulation of the SEC or any provision of federal law relating to fraud against shareholders.
“On this record, the plaintiff has not plausibly pleaded a reasonable belief that he performed a protected activity under SOX,” Beeler said in her ruling.
Baig could not convince Beeler that violations occurred, or that retaliation happened as a result.
“The complaint does not contain sufficient facts to show that the plaintiff reported violations of SEC rules or regulations, the plaintiff did not plead facts regarding the elements of securities fraud or wire fraud, and his reporting cybersecurity violations does not relate to rules governing internal-accounting controls,” the judge said, dismissing the claims without prejudice.
After disclosing what he thought were SEC violations, Baig’s supervisor gave him a negative performance review, but he kept his job for a few more years. By 2024, he says his supervisors sabotaged him by blocking his suggested cybersecurity improvements, denying him sufficient staffing and cutting his team out of budget allocations.
He filed the OSHA complaint in January 2025 and was fired the next month.
Beeler said Baig “has not plausibly pleaded a reasonable belief that he disclosed” securities fraud or wire fraud committed by the defendants. The judge dismissed all the individual claims but noted that Baig’s individual claim against WhatsApp vice president Nitin Gupta could have survived, as he sufficiently asserted Gupta’s involvement in retaliation by denying him a discretionary equity grant. However, the entire retaliation case was dismissed.
Attorneys representing Mr. Baig did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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