In this golden age of surveillance, making E2EE chat normal and expected has been privacy's biggest win.
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@evacide The thing is: WhatsApp can be the next in line and people will not migrate from it if it happens.
@qgustavor @evacide we will see.
I could imagine an EU intervention when Meta removes encrytion from WhatsApp.
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In this golden age of surveillance, making E2EE chat normal and expected has been privacy's biggest win. I hate to see it getting rolled back. https://thehackernews.com/2026/03/meta-to-shut-down-instagram-end-to-end.html
E2EE wasn't turned on by default in Instagram. The real reason they removed it — Meta doesn't earn benefits in privacy marketing
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In this golden age of surveillance, making E2EE chat normal and expected has been privacy's biggest win. I hate to see it getting rolled back. https://thehackernews.com/2026/03/meta-to-shut-down-instagram-end-to-end.html
@evacide Was it ever E2EE, I wonder. They just got tired pretending.
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In this golden age of surveillance, making E2EE chat normal and expected has been privacy's biggest win. I hate to see it getting rolled back. https://thehackernews.com/2026/03/meta-to-shut-down-instagram-end-to-end.html
@evacide almost as if E2EE is not really useful with closed clients and closed servers controlled by the same central entity
it was always one feature flag away from being turned off with no one knowing anyway
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In this golden age of surveillance, making E2EE chat normal and expected has been privacy's biggest win. I hate to see it getting rolled back. https://thehackernews.com/2026/03/meta-to-shut-down-instagram-end-to-end.html
@evacide
Encryption is moot on devices where "ai" costantly reads your screen, listens to you, and soon will constantly watch your face as you read. -
In this golden age of surveillance, making E2EE chat normal and expected has been privacy's biggest win. I hate to see it getting rolled back. https://thehackernews.com/2026/03/meta-to-shut-down-instagram-end-to-end.html
@evacide it’s disgusting, but Meta shouldn’t be anyone’s choice for privacy-respecting solutions.
Perhaps in some future administration, the Feds will shock everyone by prioritizing citizen privacy over business profits and require E2EE.
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In this golden age of surveillance, making E2EE chat normal and expected has been privacy's biggest win. I hate to see it getting rolled back. https://thehackernews.com/2026/03/meta-to-shut-down-instagram-end-to-end.html
@evacide @encthenet Meta is apparently the corporation behind all the international lobbying for laws mandating age verification in operating systems and web browsers. Ditching E2EE in their own product is a no-brainer in this context.
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In this golden age of surveillance, making E2EE chat normal and expected has been privacy's biggest win. I hate to see it getting rolled back. https://thehackernews.com/2026/03/meta-to-shut-down-instagram-end-to-end.html
@evacide Woah why did that happen? Wasn't their whole spiel that WhatsApp, Instagram and FB Messenger share the same encrypted backend? I hate that we are barraging head first into an age of private and government surveillance. I miss the days of everyone wants to be like Signal and use their protocol !!!
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In this golden age of surveillance, making E2EE chat normal and expected has been privacy's biggest win. I hate to see it getting rolled back. https://thehackernews.com/2026/03/meta-to-shut-down-instagram-end-to-end.html
@evacide it's not like it was actually working on Instagram, amirite
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In this golden age of surveillance, making E2EE chat normal and expected has been privacy's biggest win. I hate to see it getting rolled back. https://thehackernews.com/2026/03/meta-to-shut-down-instagram-end-to-end.html
@evacide I wouldn’t trust anything Meta related anyway. Maybe Messenger and WhatsApp are up next on the chopping block?
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@evacide @encthenet Meta is apparently the corporation behind all the international lobbying for laws mandating age verification in operating systems and web browsers. Ditching E2EE in their own product is a no-brainer in this context.
Was just about to say this. Meta are leading the charge for age verification because they're getting hammered for $58b in COPPA fines, so they're looking to shift the point of responsibility onto anyone else.
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@qgustavor @evacide we will see.
I could imagine an EU intervention when Meta removes encrytion from WhatsApp.
I wouldn't bet on it. Heard of Chat Control? The EU are walking roughshod over their own history of privacy protections along with seemingly every government on earth in a desperate bid to read everyone's private information.
Apart from theirs, because *of course* they've made themselves exempt from all the rules they want to impose on others...
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Was just about to say this. Meta are leading the charge for age verification because they're getting hammered for $58b in COPPA fines, so they're looking to shift the point of responsibility onto anyone else.
@sar @cstross @evacide @encthenet strikes me similarly; they're trying to show that they're doing something to "protect children" in the face of all the scrutiny they're under about the real harms they don't want to stop perpetuating
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In this golden age of surveillance, making E2EE chat normal and expected has been privacy's biggest win. I hate to see it getting rolled back. https://thehackernews.com/2026/03/meta-to-shut-down-instagram-end-to-end.html
@evacide One more reason to walk away from Meta
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In this golden age of surveillance, making E2EE chat normal and expected has been privacy's biggest win. I hate to see it getting rolled back. https://thehackernews.com/2026/03/meta-to-shut-down-instagram-end-to-end.html
@evacide Whoever is using Meta stuff at this point hasn't been paying attention.
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@evacide @encthenet Meta is apparently the corporation behind all the international lobbying for laws mandating age verification in operating systems and web browsers. Ditching E2EE in their own product is a no-brainer in this context.
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In this golden age of surveillance, making E2EE chat normal and expected has been privacy's biggest win. I hate to see it getting rolled back. https://thehackernews.com/2026/03/meta-to-shut-down-instagram-end-to-end.html
If that company’s products lose and an encryption, my hope is that people who care leave the platforms for safer alternatives and buy that I mean non-commercial alternatives
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In this golden age of surveillance, making E2EE chat normal and expected has been privacy's biggest win. I hate to see it getting rolled back. https://thehackernews.com/2026/03/meta-to-shut-down-instagram-end-to-end.html
@evacide Moxie Marlinspike, whom I respect less by the day: "No, you see, federated messengers in general can't work. They ossify too quickly and get left in the dust security wise. Thomas Hobbes had it right. A single legal entity must be in control of every aspect of the application. Look at Whatsapp. They rolled out e2ee for all their users with the push of a button."
I would like to thank Meta for reminding these credulous people that anything that can be done with a push of button, can be undone with the push of a button, and with just as much justification.
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@evacide The thing is: WhatsApp can be the next in line and people will not migrate from it if it happens.
@qgustavor @evacide two days ago they sent me a generic message there reminding me that E2EE was there and protecting me, so they know that's a lot more "core" to that product...
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@sar @cstross @evacide @encthenet strikes me similarly; they're trying to show that they're doing something to "protect children" in the face of all the scrutiny they're under about the real harms they don't want to stop perpetuating
@mancube @sar @cstross @evacide @encthenet you’ve got to wonder why they don’t simply spend that money on some tough moderation instead; just let go of that childish free speech absolutism and fix the poison on those damn platforms
