Topline
Twitter rolled out encrypted direct messaging—a long-promised feature—on Wednesday evening, but the social media platform has placed major limitations on who can access the feature, which has been the default standard on other popular messaging apps for several years.
Twitter rolled out an early access version of its encrypted messaging feature on Wednesday.
Key Facts
Twitter announced the rollout of the feature on its “Help Center” website, noting it is a part of the company’s effort to become the “most trusted platform on the internet.”
The end-to-end encryption feature prevents Twitter or any other entity from viewing private messages between two individuals who have enabled the feature unless they gain physical access to one of the user’s devices.
Twitter CEO Elon Musk, who had been promising the feature for several months now, tweeted Thursday that an “early version” of the feature was now live, but suggested it was not entirely foolproof yet by saying, “try it, but don’t trust it yet.”
The feature, which has been a standard on apps like iMessage and WhatsApp for years now, comes with some caveats, the major one being it only works for verified users—which covers Twitter Blue subscribers or accounts affiliated with “verified organizations.”
In addition to both the sender and recipient being verified, the sender will need to opt-in to use the feature, and they can only send encrypted messages to people who either follow them or have messaged the sender previously.
Encryption does not work for group messages at present and for any content other than text or links.
Crucial Quote
On Tuesday, Musk said: “The acid test [for this feature] is that I could not see your DMs even if there was a gun to my head,” something the help center announcement reiterates almost verbatim.
News Peg
The feature is also not as secure as most other messaging apps, as it does not encrypt message metadata, like timestamps. The early version of encrypted messages also does not protect against a so-called “man-in-the-middle” attack, which means the sender and recipient will not become aware in the event “a malicious insider” or the company itself “as a result of a compulsory legal process” were to compromise an encrypted conversation.
Key Background
Encrypted messages are the latest in a series of features Twitter has added to the platform recently, as it attempts to grow into a so-called “everything app.” On Tuesday, Musk promised Twitter will be adding voice and video calling “soon,” putting it in direct competition with WhatsApp, as well as iMessage and Facetime. Other features rolled out recently include 10,000-character tweets, special text formatting options and monetization features for content creators. However, unlike social media and content platforms like Instagram, YouTube and TikTok, Twitter has put most of its new features behind its $8 per month subscription paywall. This push comes amid reports that Twitter Blue’s subscriber base has shrunk significantly in the past few months.
Further Reading
Musk Says Encrypted Messaging And Video Calling Are Coming To Twitter (Forbes)
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/siladityaray/2023/05/11/musks-long-promised-encrypted-messages-finally-launch-on-twitterwith-major-caveats/