In an interview with France Inter with Snowden, the journalist said that French leader Emmanuel Macron uses Telegram, and Prime Minister Edward Philippe uses WhatsApp.
In response to this, Snowden noted that the use of the latter by ministers is a mistake.
“If someone in the government deals with sensitive issues and uses WhatsApp, that’s a mistake,” he said.
He noted that both of these programs (WhatsApp and Telegram) are "better than using SMS or other unencrypted messages."
According to him, these programs are "extremely dangerous if you are the prime minister."
Instead of these messengers, Snowden advises using Signal and Wire, which have "better encryption."
Earlier, the founder of the Telegram service Pavel Durov criticized WhatsApp because of security problems.
According to him, WhatsApp is liked by dictators, as it allows you to "spy on your people."
The results of a survey of the Public Opinion Foundation published in April showed that the WhatsApp messenger is the most popular among Russians.
The top three also included Viber and Skype. Telegram took the fourth position.