Meta is getting rid of end-to-end encryption (E2EE) for Instagram’s DMs. There’s no second guessing there. However, the story behind why Meta is going through with the change is a lot more complicated.
We reported on Instagram’s decision to discontinue E2EE for DMs last week, and the company was quick to offer an official statement about the change.
Instagram to discontinue end-to-end encryption for DMs [Update: Meta’s statement]
Pulling the plug on privacy?
“Very few people were opting in to end-to-end encrypted messaging in DMs, so we’re removing this option from Instagram in the coming months. Anyone who wants to keep messaging with end-to-end encryption can easily do that on WhatsApp,” said the tech giant. But it looks like the actual truth might be more complicated, as highlighted in a new Platformer report.
For starters, the ‘low adoption’ smoke screen was of Meta’s own creation. For most users, the feature was buried behind four taps/menus and was never really advertised. Add to that the fact that E2EE still isn’t widely available. I, for reference, still don’t have access to the feature, and with it ready to be removed on May 8, it doesn’t look like I ever will.
With the excuse of low adoption, Meta is sunsetting an important safety and privacy feature that it never really ‘truly’ launched.
Safety before privacy
The delay has reasons too. Monika Bickert, Meta’s Head of Content Policy, reportedly called Instagram’s E2EE ambitions “irresponsible,” according to some internal company documents.
“I’m not very invested in helping him sell this, I must say,” Bickert wrote of Zuckerberg’s efforts to promote encryption on privacy grounds. With end-to-end encryption, “there is no way to find the terror attack planning or child exploitation” and proactively refer those cases to law enforcement, she added.
Meta predicted that default encryption would “serve as a shield” for terrorists and child predators to do their work on the platform in secret. This was an internal civil war between privacy and safety & security, which the former has lost.
Then, there’s the regulator pressure. India has urged Meta to break WhatsApp’s encryption, while the UK’s Online Safety Act, passed in 2023, ordered encrypted services, like Instagram’s DMs, to scan for and remove illegal content. The former will be the death of the app as we know it, while the latter is essentially impossible.
While the push to remove E2EE in the name of child safety and halting terror plans before they mature are moral reasons, the change also leaves users that value their privacy in the cold.
The change will kick in on May 8, 2026. Instagram suggests exporting your data, including chat media and logs, before the big transition.
