"As of May 8 end-to-end encryption is no longer available on direct messages on Instagram. Meta, in announcing the policy reversal, said it had done so because few people used the feature. But this has raised questions about its impact on user privacy and whether it will improve child safety on the platform. Instagram has long been a focal point for discussion about online safety - whether in relation to body image concerns, cyberbullying or sexual extortion."
"End-to-end encryption is a way of scrambling a message so only the sender's and recipient's devices can read it. The platform carrying the message, in this case Instagram, can't access it. This same technology is present by default on WhatsApp, Signal, iMessage, and (since late 2023) Facebook Messenger. Meta's CEO Mark Zuckerberg first promised to bring end-to-end encryption across Meta's messaging products back in 2019, under the slogan "the future is private"."
"Instagram tested encrypted direct messages in 2021. It rolled them out as an opt-in feature in 2023. End-to-end encrypted direct messages never became the default, and the low adoption rate of opting in to use the feature is Meta's justification for removing it. As a spokesperson told The Guardian: "Very few people were opting in to end-to-end encrypted messaging in DMs, so we're removing this option from Instagram.""
"This is important considering research has found that perpetrators first contacted roughly 23% of Australian sexual extortion victims on Instagram, the second most frequent method of contact, behind Snapchat (at 50%). What is end-to-end encryption? End-to-end encryption is a way of scrambling a message so only the sender's and recipient's devices can read it. The platform carrying the message, in this case Instagram, can't access it."
As of May 8, end-to-end encryption is no longer available for direct messages on Instagram. Meta removed the option after stating that few people used it. The change affects how safety and moderation work in private messages, which are central to concerns such as body image harm, cyberbullying, and sexual extortion. Research found perpetrators contacted about 23% of Australian sexual extortion victims on Instagram, making it the second most frequent contact method after Snapchat. End-to-end encryption scrambles messages so only the sender’s and recipient’s devices can read them, while the platform cannot access the content. The technology exists by default on WhatsApp, Signal, iMessage, and Facebook Messenger since late 2023. Instagram previously tested encrypted DMs in 2021 and offered them as an opt-in feature in 2023, but adoption remained low.
Read at The Conversation
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