The digital rights organization Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has slammed Meta for ending its opt-in encrypted chats on Instagram. The tech giant said that it was killing the feature because very few people were using it. Now, though, the EFF says this isn’t surprising given that it was optional and took four steps to enable it.
The EFF said defaults matter and Meta’s decision to blame users for the feature’s removal is proof of this. While Meta has pushed people towards WhatsApp if they want secure messaging, the EFF believes that Meta should meet people where they are and have on-by-default encrypted messages on WhatsApp, Messenger, and Instagram.
In its statement, the EFF said:
“Meta abandoning this principle is disheartening, especially as we are still waiting for other promised features from the company, like end-to-end encryption in Facebook Messenger group messages. Instead of blaming users for not using these sorts of features and then abandoning the promise of delivery, Meta—and other tech companies—should start by enabling strong privacy protective features by default."
It isn’t clear if Meta faced some technical hurdles behind the scenes or whether it’s just not willing to have a fight with governments over encryption. Many jurisdictions are cracking down on social media and adult websites now, citing child safety, and among their demands is access to private messages of social media users.
In Meta’s defence, the company has a terrible record when it comes to privacy, so even if chats are encrypted on WhatsApp and Messenger, it doesn’t stop a lot of people from being dubious over whether their messages are truly encrypted or not. At least with the company not even claiming Instagram messages are encrypted, users know exactly what they’re getting themselves into when they choose to send messages there.
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