With the modifications, Meta won’t access message content unless reported by users
Meta, Facebook’s parent company, has commenced the implementation of end-to-end encryption on Messenger and Facebook, as revealed by Meta on Thursday.
Loredana Crisan, the company’s Vice President for Messenger, mentioned that the encryption is based on the Signal protocol and Meta’s proprietary Labyrinth protocol.
Crisan highlighted that the newly introduced features, part of the ongoing rollout, required years of development. The app was entirely reconstructed by Meta’s engineers, designers, cryptographers, and other team members.
In collaboration with external experts, academics, advocates, and governments, we closely examined risks and developed safeguards to ensure the concurrent enhancement of privacy and safety.
Messenger introduced opt-in encrypted messaging in 2016, with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg initially mentioning the move in 2019. Originally, the company planned to implement this feature by default in 2022, but the launch was postponed due to apprehensions that it might hinder Meta’s ability to detect child abuse on its platform.
With the recent changes, Meta will no longer be able to access the contents of user messages, unless a chat participant decides to report a message to the company. While the new features are available immediately, it will take some time for default end-to-end encryption to be applied to Messenger chats.
The implementation of end-to-end encryption for over 1 billion platform users is expected to span several months. Users will be prompted to establish a recovery method to retrieve their messages once the transition is finalized.
This move is likely to cause concern among law enforcement and child protection groups, as they have opposed companies adopting end-to-end encryption. In September, Suella Braverman, the former UK home secretary, urged Meta to reconsider the plan, emphasizing the need for Meta to ensure the safety of its platforms against abusive users. She stressed the importance of developing appropriate safeguards alongside the plans for end-to-end encryption.
As of now, end-to-end encryption will not be applied to Instagram, but the company announced in August that the change would be extended to Instagram shortly after the completion of the Messenger upgrade.
WhatsApp chats are currently secured with encryption.
Additional features being introduced encompass the option to edit a message within a 15-minute window after sending, messages that automatically vanish after 24 hours, the ability to manage visibility of message read receipts, and the option to listen to voice messages at 1.5 or 2 times the normal speed.