This bill establishes a federal crime with severe penalties for intentionally sharing classified information over mobile or desktop messaging applications.
Ritchie Torres
Representative
NY-15
The HOUTHI PC SMALL GROUP Act of 2025 establishes a new federal crime prohibiting the intentional sharing of classified information via mobile or desktop messaging applications. This legislation aims to prevent the unauthorized disclosure of sensitive national security secrets through modern communication platforms. Violators knowingly sharing such information face significant penalties, including fines and up to ten years in prison.
New Federal Crime: Sharing Classified Data on WhatsApp, Signal Now Carries 10 Years in Prison
The new HOUTHI PC SMALL GROUP Act of 2025 is tackling national security, but it’s doing it by making a major update to how we use modern communication tools. Essentially, Section 2 of this bill creates a brand-new federal crime: if you intentionally share any classified information using a mobile phone app (like WhatsApp or Signal) or a desktop messaging application, you are looking at serious time—up to 10 years in federal prison, a hefty fine, or both. This isn’t just an internal policy change; the bill formally amends Title 18 of the U.S. Code, which means it’s now sitting right next to the serious espionage statutes.
The Espionage Act Gets a Tech Upgrade
For most people, this section doesn't change much, but for the hundreds of thousands of government employees and contractors who handle classified information, this is a massive shift. Currently, unauthorized disclosure is already illegal, but this bill specifically targets the method of communication. By naming 'mobile or desktop messaging application,' the law is catching up to the reality that people text, chat, and message in ways that weren’t common when the original laws were written. The goal is to plug modern security holes, making it explicitly illegal to use these common, often end-to-end encrypted, channels for state secrets.
Where the Fine Print Gets Fuzzy
While the intent—protecting secrets—is clear, the real-world application could get complicated. The law hinges on the phrase 'intentionally share.' What happens if a government employee, juggling three phones, accidentally pastes a classified snippet into a personal chat window? Proving intent in a criminal case is tough, but the threat of a 10-year sentence could create a huge chilling effect, potentially leading to over-prosecution or aggressive investigations into what might be simple human error. This is a powerful tool for law enforcement, but it also creates high liability for anyone with security clearance, even if they’re just trying to do their job quickly in a highly digital environment.
The Real-World Risk for Cleared Personnel
Think about the contractor working late who uses a desktop messaging app to coordinate logistics with a colleague, perhaps accidentally including a classified detail in a rushed message. This bill means that a simple mistake—or a minor lapse in security protocol—could now be charged as a major felony. The broad scope of 'desktop messaging application' means official, unofficial, and personal communication channels are now all under the shadow of this new law. While the provision aims to deter deliberate leaks, its harsh penalty and broad definition of communication tools mean that the cost of an honest mistake just went up exponentially for the people we trust with our nation’s most sensitive information.