NEW YORK (Kashmir English): Instagram, the photo-sharing platform with 3 billion monthly active users, has changed its private message service as Meta is ending Instagram end-to-end encryption for direct messages.
Imagine you send a private message on Instagram, which you think is as secure as WhatsApp, but it is not, as Meta quietly announces that it is ending end-to-end encryption for Instagram DMs, which will go into effect on May 8.
All encrypted chats will no longer be encrypted. User conversations will no longer be secure. There has been no official announcement from Instagram. They quietly announced this via their Help Center.
Users should save any media or messages they want to save. Older versions of the Instagram app may require an update to save the conversations. Instagram initially introduced encrypted Instagram DMs in 2021 under Mark Zuckerberg’s vision of a more private Instagram.
However, the company now suggests that privacy-focused individuals should use WhatsApp, which continues to have end-to-end encryption as standard. This is the latest example of the company’s approach: Instagram is good for everyday conversations, while WhatsApp is good for secure messaging.
Technology geeks say that this could allow the company to monitor the content of the messages to check for any illegal content and then share the information with the relevant authorities if they ask. Experts are also concerned that the lack of end-to-end encryption could allow the content of the messages to be used to train AI, while they are wondering if the same might happen to WhatsApp.
This is happening at a time when some social media platforms are improving their end-to-end encryption, while Instagram is going the other way. There is no word from the company as to whether they plan to bring end-to-end encryption to Instagram’s voice or video calls, or to Facebook Messenger.
