The Instagram repeals as of today, Friday, 8 May sending messages with end-to-end encryption, abandoning a policy Meta has been promoting in recent years under the slogan «The future is private».
The change means that the platform's direct messages (DMs) will return to status «standard encryption», allowing Meta to gain access to the content of the talks when necessary.
The company announced the decision through the Instagram support page, specifying that the end-to-end encryption function will be permanently disabled for all users worldwide.
The end-to-end encryption is considered one of the safest forms of digital communications protection, as it allows only the sender and recipient to read the messages. It is already used as a default in applications such as WhatsApp, Signal, Apple iMessage and Google Messages.
Meta had announced as early as 2019 that she planned to extend end-to-end encryption to Facebook and Instagram messaging services, completing the corresponding Facebook Messenger transition in 2023.
However, the use of such systems has caused reactions from governments and organisations of child protection which They argue that complete encryption makes it difficult to identify cases of sexual abuse of minors online.
According to a report by the European Parliament's Research Service in 2023, these systems may conceal evidence relating to child abuse or coercion, thereby limiting the possibility of investigating such crimes by the authorities.
With information from Euronews
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