[user104658]

ONLY if the phone has been legally seized. However, as WhatsApp uses end-to-end encryption, I don't know if a deleted message can even be retrieved from the server. I would not advocate the removal of end-to-end encryption.

As always with these threads; nothing anyone can say is going to convince me that it is a good idea to sacrifice privacy by the boatload in exchange for "potential" security. Another terrorist attack that "might have been but probably wouldn't have been" prevented changes absolutely nothing.

If we start willfully handing away our freedom and privacy - just about the only thing that DOES make our countries better than others - then there is literally no ****ing point in any of it and we might as well push the nuke button now and be done with it.