Instagram Discontinues End-To-End Encryption For DMs (thehackernews.com)
- Reference: 0180974708
- News link: https://it.slashdot.org/story/26/03/13/214229/instagram-discontinues-end-to-end-encryption-for-dms
- Source link: https://thehackernews.com/2026/03/meta-to-shut-down-instagram-end-to-end.html
> The American company [2]first began testing E2EE for Instagram direct messages in 2021 as part of CEO Mark Zuckerberg's "privacy-focused vision for social networking." The feature is currently "only available in some areas" and is not enabled by default. Weeks into the Russo-Ukrainian war in February 2022, the company made encrypted direct messaging available to all adult users in both countries.
Last week, TikTok said it would not introduce E2EE, [3]arguing it makes users less safe by preventing police and safety teams from being able to read direct messages if needed.
[1] https://thehackernews.com/2026/03/meta-to-shut-down-instagram-end-to-end.html
[2] https://tech.slashdot.org/story/19/03/06/2010245/mark-zuckerberg-says-facebook-will-shift-to-emphasize-encrypted-ephemeral-messages
[3] https://tech.slashdot.org/story/26/03/04/1638248/tiktok-says-end-to-end-encryption-makes-users-less-safe
In two minds about this (Score:5, Interesting)
On the one hand, why is this opt in? Why remove it when it's trivial to maintain? Why not remove the non-encrypted features?
On the other hand... it's Instagram. I see no option to encrypt DMs, no evidence that they are encrypted. I used Instagram for messages every so often and this is literally the first story I heard about it being encrypted.
Ironically Facebook sucks at marketing.
Re:In two minds about this (Score:4, Interesting)
The unstated but obvious reason they are taking the time to remove it is because they want to train their LLMs on the messages.
Use LL AI to generate faux 'The Onion' headlines ! (Score:1)
I've been doing it for awhile now, I fed both these recent articles I spotted on Slashdot into Perplexity and the algorithm I had Qwen3, I Ask AI, and Perplexity develop that creates bogus 'The Onion' headlines, and Perplexity came up with this for these two articles : [1]https://www.pcmag.com/news/law... [pcmag.com] & [2]https://interestingengineering... [interestin...eering.com] : "Meta Assures Users WhatsApp Is Safely E2EE As It Quietly Retires E2EE Everywhere Else"
[1] https://www.pcmag.com/news/lawsuit-alleges-that-whatsapp-has-no-end-to-end-encryption
[2] https://interestingengineering.com/culture/instagram-ends-encrypted-dms
Why do I remember (Score:2)
IIRC, a few months ago, all these social services (except Telegram) admitted to using end-to-server encryption (transport-level) only, for our safety, of course.
Encrypted Dungeon Masters? (Score:1)
I'm used to Dungeon Masters being cryptic, and my party often ends up in crypts, but I've never had the DM encrypted. Sounds like a nasty curse.
Re: (Score:2)
I've run across a few who were pretty indecipherable. Or at least incoherent.
I remember the times... (Score:4, Insightful)
... when the media every so often told us the horror-stories from behind the Iron Curtain, where the evil Stasi or the KGB spied on their own people, and did so as lessons about the difference between "free" and authoritarian countries. But now it seems the "cold war" was thoroughly won by the Warsaw pact states, at least with regards to spreading that habit of excessive eavesdropping on everyone all around the globe.
Re: (Score:1)
You've convinced me to move to Russia right away.