Tuesday, Elon Musk slammed the instant messaging mobile application Whatsapp, which was acquired by Mark Zuckerberg's Facebook back in 2014.

He said the application "cannot be trusted" as a reply to one user Foad Dabiri's thread, which he started by accusing Whatsapp of "using the microphone in the background, while I was asleep and since I woke up at 6AM (and that's just a part of the timeline!) What's going on?"

-Not the first time-

Notably, this is the second incident in a matter of weeks in which Musk criticizes Zuckerberg, including accusations of 'bias' in relation to his support for the Democratic party through campaign donations.

Musk's criticism came amid increasing reports and accusations that Whatsapp is secretly listening in on its users.

-Whatsapp responds-

WhatsApp did not remain silent and responded on Twitter saying: "Over the last 24 hours we’ve been in touch with a Twitter engineer who posted an issue with his Pixel phone and WhatsApp. We believe this is a bug on Android that mis-attributes information in their Privacy Dashboard and have asked Google to investigate and remediate."

It explained: "Once granted permission, WhatsApp only accesses the mic when a user is making a call or recording a voice note or video - and even then, these communications are protected by end-to-end encryption so WhatsApp cannot hear them."

Over the last 24 hours we’ve been in touch with a Twitter engineer who posted an issue with his Pixel phone and WhatsApp.

We believe this is a bug on Android that mis-attributes information in their Privacy Dashboard and have asked Google to investigate and remediate. https://t.co/MnBi3qE6Gp

— WhatsApp (@WhatsApp) May 9, 2023

-Dabiri's not alone-

According to the Daily Mail, many WhatsApp users, much like Dabiri, have voiced their concerns about their microphones being activated in the background.

Some tried to help others by suggesting solutions including restarting the mobile phone, adjusting microphone settings or even deleting the application altogether.