Instagram drops private messaging feature worldwide
The move marks a major shift by Meta, which had earlier promoted the technology as the future standard for online privacy.
Instagram users around the world can no longer send highly private direct messages after parent company Meta disabled end-to-end encryption (E2EE) on the platform from Thursday.
The move marks a major shift by Meta, which had earlier promoted the technology as the future standard for online privacy.
End-to-end encryption is considered one of the safest forms of digital communication because only the sender and receiver can read messages. Critics, however, have long argued that it can also make it harder for authorities to detect crimes such as child abuse and online grooming.
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With the feature now removed, Instagram will be able to access the contents of direct messages, including photos, videos and voice notes.
Meta had announced plans in 2019 to expand E2EE across Facebook and Instagram messaging services. While Facebook Messenger fully adopted the system in 2023, Instagram only offered it as an optional feature and had planned to make it standard later.
The company has now abandoned those plans after seven years.
Instead, Instagram will use standard encryption, a system commonly used by services such as Gmail, where providers can access data if necessary.
Child safety organisations welcomed the decision. The NSPCC, a UK-based children's charity, said the removal of E2EE would help prevent criminals from hiding abusive activities online.
"We are really pleased," said Rani Govender of the NSPCC, adding that encrypted messaging could allow child abuse and grooming to go undetected.
Privacy campaigners strongly criticised the decision, calling it a setback for online security.
Maya Thomas of privacy group Big Brother Watch said E2EE helps protect children's personal data and warned that Meta may be responding to government pressure.
Meta did not publicly announce the policy reversal but quietly updated Instagram's terms and conditions in March, stating that end-to-end encrypted messaging would no longer be supported after May 8, 2026.
The company said the decision was made because only a small number of users had enabled the feature.
Cybersecurity experts, however, believe the move may also reflect Meta's growing interest in using data for targeted advertising and artificial intelligence development.
Victoria Baines, professor of information technology at Gresham College, said social media companies increasingly see user communications as valuable data for AI training and advertising purposes.
Instagram previously said direct messages were not used to train AI systems.
The decision could also affect the wider social media industry, where encrypted messaging had increasingly become common.
Apps such as WhatsApp, Signal, Facebook Messenger, iMessage and Google Messages currently use E2EE by default.
Meanwhile, Telegram offers the feature as optional, while TikTok recently said it has no plans to introduce end-to-end encryption for direct messages.
Experts say Meta's latest move could slow the wider expansion of encrypted messaging on social media platforms.
