Sci-Tech Desk: Social media platform Instagram is slated to end a significantly important option from its private messaging feature. As stated by The Guardian, it is about to stop the end-to-end encryption of private messages between users. It will be removed from the platform from 8 May 2026 for the sake of online safety of children.
But, what does it mean for the users? It would mean that private texts would not genuinely be private anymore as Meta would be able to view the content of the communication between users. Till now it could only view the content only of the users who had not enabled the encrypted option. However, this new step will fully remove this feature now.
As per Meta it is removing this option due to its low usage among the users. It also said that anyone who wanted to engage in end-to-end encrypted messaging could easily do it on WhatsApp.
Alternatively, Meta has also been at the center of criticism from several law enforcements organizations worldwide like the FBI and Interpol who believe that encrypted communication compromised safety of children in such online platforms and prevented the identification of harmful and criminal activities like child sexual exploitation, terrorism, or violent extremism.
Child safety in social media is a serious matter as they could be easy victims of criminal activities in widely used platforms like Instagram. However, removing such features could also ignite the debate around the right to individual privacy. Therefore, people below 18 should not be encouraged to use social media at all.
Source: The Guardian
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