Twitter is ready on Wednesday to launch a service that lets customers of the platform ship encrypted direct messages, whereas the social media firm additionally plans so as to add voice and video calling capabilities, based on CEO Elon Musk.
In a tweet, Musk mentioned the replace will embody at the least two new capabilities to the platform’s direct messaging, or DM, characteristic, along with introducing encryption for DMs.
“The acid check is that I couldn’t see your DMs even when there was a gun to my head,” wrote Musk, who owns Twitter.
He additionally shared that the replace allows customers to answer to any message in a direct message thread, not simply the newest message within the chat.
The encrypted messaging options “ought to” change into out there on Wednesday, Musk mentioned. He didn’t provide a concrete timeline for launching video and voice calling options, which might enable Twitter customers to name others on the platform.
Twitter has beforehand struggled to ship promised merchandise on time, and has typically did not ship on its guarantees in any respect. In February, for instance, Musk mentioned Twitter would cut up its promoting income with content material creators, one thing that has not but come to fruition. That very same month, he additionally vowed give builders entry to Twitter’s algorithm “subsequent week.” That, too, hasn’t occurred but.
Requires privateness
Encryption is the method of defending delicate or non-public information through the use of an algorithm to scramble that data so solely the sender and supposed recipient can learn it.
The transfer towards encrypted messaging is mostly constructive for social media customers, mentioned Kohei Kurihara, co-founder of Privateness by Design Lab. However he advises customers to be conscious of how that information is saved.
“Customers ought to ask Twitter whether or not their information is definitely protected with end-to-end encryption and ask for transparency to share and safe their very own information,” Kurihara advised CBS MoneyWatch.
Musk’s plans to implement end-to-end encryption clashes with a number of the CEO’s earlier Twitter coverage modifications that critics say undermined safety on the positioning. In March, Twitter eradicated two-factor authentication for all customers besides subscribers to its paid Twitter Blue service, who characterize simply 0.2% of the platform’s customers, the Info reported. The coverage change eliminated an added layer of safety from many customers’ accounts.
Twitter in April additionally eliminated blue checkmarks, or verification badges, for celebrities, journalists and different public figures. That led to a rise in accounts impersonating public figures, Twitter’s “Transparency Report” shows.
Twitter modifications come as some social media customers search larger privateness following various high-profile data leaks. In April, Fb settled allegations that it had improperly disseminated customers’ information with third events similar to advertisers and information brokers. In the meantime, an inquiry carried out by ByteDance, the mother or father firm of TikTok, revealed final 12 months that TikTok workers had inappropriately accessed the data of TikTok customers within the U.S., together with journalists.
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