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Meta will stop end-to-end encryption for private messages on Instagram, after criticism from law enforcement and child protection groups who warned that private chats make it harder to protect children online.
End-to-end encryption is a method of sending messages that only the intended recipients can read, meaning that neither the platform nor the company’s servers, nor outside hackers, can view messages or listen to calls.
In an encrypted chat or call, every device has a unique secret key that ensures messages remain safe. When a user sends a message, the device locks it so that only the intended device can open it, meaning that Meta cannot read the contents of these encrypted messages, the company said.
An update to Instagram’s Help Centre said that end-to-end encryption will no longer be supported after May 8. Euronews Next reached out to Meta for more information about their encryption policy change, but did not receive an immediate reply.
The changes mean that Meta will be able to see the contents of user messages, which so far ti could only do for those who had enabled encryption.
In 2019, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced a plan to shift the company’s messaging platforms, such as Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp, towards private, encrypted communication, which he only launched in 2023.
The company’s encryption plans were met with opposition from groups, including the British non-profit Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), the United Kingdom’s National Child Protection Task Force, and the Virtual Global Taskforce, an international alliance of 15 law enforcement agencies.
The agencies said that encryption makes it difficult for police to track child sexual abuse material (CSAM) that is being shared on social media.
The Virtual Global Taskforce described Meta’s encryption plans as “a purposeful design choice that degrades safety systems and weakens the ability to keep child users safe,” the group said in a statement in 2024.
Encryption is the default messaging technology used by apps such as Signal, Apple’s iMessage, Google Messages, and other Meta platforms, including WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger.