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Social media companies often hide big strategic decisions behind small technical changes. Removal of end-to-end encryption (E2E) from direct messages (DMs). of Instagram Decision is one such step. The company will remove it from Instagram starting May 8. On the face of it, this appears to be a normal product update. The company says the feature is being removed because few people use it. However, from the broader perspective of the tech industry, this decision is not just the end of a feature, but a shift in the direction of privacy on the Internet.

End-to-end encryption is the best measure of privacy

End-to-end encryption is considered the strongest method of Internet security and privacy. This is the best parameter for encryption in messaging. This simply means that only the sender and receiver can read the conversation. The platform, server or company cannot see that conversation. For this reason, messaging platforms like WhatsApp and Signal have made it the default. One of the greatest strengths of this technology is that it makes digital conversations as private as private conversations in a room. With end-to-end encryption, companies can’t even try to read multiple conversations between two people. Recently, the President of Signal Foundation attended the India Today Conclave. He also emphasized that end-to-end encryption is not a luxury but a necessity. This should not be compromised for personal messages.

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Instagram went back on its word

When Instagram introduced encrypted chat a few years ago. At the time, Meta called this a big step towards privacy. At the time, the company said that the future of social media was in personal messaging, and that people preferred private conversations to public posts. But now, the same company is backing away from that direction. The question becomes, what has changed that instead of increasing privacy, it is now decreasing?

Meta’s argument is that very few users were using encrypted chat. In the tech world, this argument is considered weak. The importance of any security technology is not determined by the number of its use, but by its impact. Seat belts are not always used, but no company can decide to remove them from cars. Similarly, encryption is a fundamental layer of digital security. If it is removed, it affects not only some users, but the security and privacy of the entire platform.

To understand this decision, it’s important to look at another big race going on in the tech industry: the race for artificial intelligence.

AI compromises privacy

Today, companies like OpenAI, Google, Microsoft, and Meta are collecting massive amounts of data to outdo each other. Because the more data, the better the AI. The better the AI, the more money.

The more data AI systems read, the better their answers are. This is what makes data the most valuable resource for tech companies. Data is being treated like a rare mineral.

Social media companies have the largest collection of data in the world: the conversations of billions of people, their interests, their emotions, their relationships and their daily conversations.

Was this done in a rush to train the AI?

This data is extremely valuable for training AI systems. But end-to-end encryption creates a major hurdle in this process, as even the platform itself cannot read the encrypted message. If there is encryption, it becomes almost impossible for the company to analyze that data. But if encryption is removed, those same conversations become a treasure trove of data.

The platform can read it, understand the patterns in it and use it to improve the AI ​​system. This is why many experts believe that in the future, the hunger for data may lead tech companies to make privacy-violating decisions.

Meta’s history also adds to this concern. The Facebook Cambridge Analytica case showed how social media data can be used to influence politics and influence elections. Additionally, a change in WhatsApp’s privacy policy sparked global controversy, allowing the company to share some of its data with the parent platform. These incidents have already eroded user confidence.

Another aspect of this issue that is less discussed is the power of the platform. When a company can read user conversations, it gains not only data, but also the power to understand and influence behavior. It becomes easier to improve algorithms, make ads more accurate and understand user habits. This power is not only technological, but also economic and social.

Many governments have long opposed encryption. If platforms cannot read messages, they argue, how can they prevent crimes or illegal activities? But cyber security experts say that weakening encryption can be dangerous, because if the security barrier is weakened, it can be exploited not only by governments or platforms, but also by hackers. Often, even a small compromise in digital security can lead to major threats.

Instagram’s decision is significant, as it goes against the direction the internet has been heading for the last ten years. Over the past decade, technology companies have been gradually moving towards more encryption. Now, for the first time, it seems some platforms are ready to push back.

The real question is not how many people use encrypted chat. The real question is whether social media companies are entering an era where the need for data becomes more important than privacy. If that happens, the future of the Internet could change. Then, social media will not be just a medium of conversation, but will become a huge data engine, where every conversation, every message and every emotion will be treated as a data point.

Instagram’s removal of encryption may seem like a small technical decision, but it could also be a glimpse of a larger digital world, where platforms will become more powerful than ever and users’ private conversations will gradually become a mere resource. That’s why this decision should be seen not just as a product update, but as a warning about internet privacy.

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