Twitter Rolls Out Encrypted DMs As Musk Promised — But They're Not Free
As promised, Elon Musk’s Twitter has launched end-to-end encryption for direct messages — but only for verified subscribers.
What Happened: Twitter has limited access to its newly introduced end-to-end encrypted direct messages to specific groups namely verified individuals who subscribe to Twitter Blue, verified organizations and affiliates of verified organizations.
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Moreover, to access Twitter’s encrypted DM feature, both the sender and recipient must have the latest versions of the app (iOS, Android and web). In addition, the recipient must either be a follower of the sender, have a prior messaging history with the sender, or have accepted a DM request from the sender before.
Some users on Twitter have started noticing an “early access” badge while availing encrypted DMs feature. People who can send encrypted messages to others will see a toggle for locking messages while comprising them. When a person is engaged in an encrypted conversation, a small lock icon will appear alongside the recipient’s avatar.
Encrypted DMs will be separated from unencrypted messages.
The Limitations Of Twitter Encrypted DMs Version 1.0: Encrypted DMs, presently, can only be sent in one-on-one conversations and are restricted to text and links. In the current version, Twitter does not offer protection against man-in-the-middle attacks, which could compromise the conversation without the knowledge of the sender or receiver.
Only messages and reactions to DMs are encrypted. Users’ metadata and linked content does not come under the encrypted category.
Why It’s Important: Even before Musk acquired Twitter for $44 billion, the tech billionaire had preached Signal-like end-to-end encryption for Twitter DMs. In a tweet last year, he stated that the feature is important to ensure that no one can spy or hack users’ messages.
Meta Platforms Inc.’s (NASDAQ:META) messaging platform WhatsApp introduced end-to-end encryption in 2016.
When users discovered that the Twitter CEO had paywalled Encrypted DMs, they asked whether the feature was about security or gaining profit.
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