The use of automatically deleted WhatsApp messages by Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass's press team has raised questions about transparency in public administration and compliance with official document retention rules.

According to an investigation published by the Los Angeles Times, members of the mayor's communications office used WhatsApp groups configured to delete messages every 24 hours. The practice could make it difficult to access these exchanges through public information requests, an issue that is already the cause of legal dispute between the aforementioned media and the city.

Temporary chats raise questions about transparency

According to the investigation, three people familiar with the press office said these groups included consultant Yusef Robb, who served as the mayor's unpaid spokesperson for part of the year.

Even after leaving that position and accepting a position as head of crisis communications for the company Lineage, Robb remained in some of those WhatsApp groups, where messages automatically disappeared. The Bass administration declined to comment on the use of this tool.

The outlet also revealed that it filed a freedom of information request to obtain all messages sent between Robb and the mayor's office between June 1 and July 10, including exchanges made through WhatsApp. However, Los Angeles administrative law states that these types of records must be kept for at least two years.

The dispute went to court

The case adds to another conflict between the Los Angeles Times and the city government related to messages sent by Karen Bass after the Palisades fire in January 2025.

Initially, the administration maintained that the text messages were “ephemeral electronic communications” and that the mayor's phone was set not to retain them. However, more than 100 messages were later recovered and delivered to the media.

The controversy led to a lawsuit filed by the Los Angeles Times, which accuses the city of illegally retaining and deleting public records.

“They maintain that they do not have to keep them, and we maintain that they do,” said Kelly Aviles, an external lawyer for the media.

For their part, the city's lawyers argued before a court that preserving all work communications for two years would be “absurdly impracticable” and could affect the privacy of municipal employees.

The debate also reaches the federal government. The investigation recalls that Secretary of State Marco Rubio configured some of his Signal chats to be automatically deleted, reflecting a growing debate about the balance between digital privacy and the obligation to preserve public records.