Instagram has removed end-to-end encryption from direct messages, reversing Meta's decade-long 'privacy-first' promise.
Effective May 8, every Instagram DM is now readable by Meta. The company justified the move by citing low adoption, but experts note the feature was buried so deep that most users never knew it existed.
The change allows Meta to access message content for ad targeting and AI training. While Meta says it won’t train AI on private messages, no such commitment was made about advertising.
Meta faces pressure from law enforcement and child safety groups who claim encryption hinders detection of exploitation. However, many predators move conversations off-platform, and on-device safety tools-like Apple's nudity detection-prove that privacy and safety can coexist.
Professor Joel Scanlan of the University of Tasmania says this is a 'false choice' and calls for privacy-preserving, on-device safety measures to be the standard.