Elon Musk wants Twitter to have encrypted DMs, video chat
Elon Musk wants Twitter to be more than just a global town square where people share their opinion in the public. He wants the microblogging platform to be the go-to option for its users to send direct messages as well. During an all-hands meeting, Musk told employees that Twitter will have encrypted DMs as well as encrypted video and voice calls.
Why does this story matter?
Musk understands that for his vision of Twitter to take shape, it should be more than what it is. He will be able to challenge other major social media platforms only then. DMs with end-to-end encryption along with encrypted video and voice chat sounds good to start with. Twitter may be able to encourage more conversations on the platform itself than Telegram or Signal.
Musk informed employees about encrypting DMs during all-hands meeting
Musk has always expressed his desire to have DMs with end-to-end encryption on Twitter. During an all-hands meeting, with presentation slides titled "Twitter 2.0," Musk told employees that Twitter would add encrypted DMs, according to a recording of the meeting obtained by The Verge. He added that the company will also work on adding encrypted video and voice chats.
Users shouldn't be concerned about their privacy: Musk
Musk said during the meeting, "We want to enable users to be able to communicate without being concerned about their privacy, [or] without being concerned about a data breach at Twitter causing all of their DMs to hit the web, or think that maybe someone at Twitter could be spying on their DMs." "That's obviously not going to be cool," he added.
Twitter has had issues with privacy in the past
This won't be Twitter's first time working on encrypted DMs. The company has had a love-hate relationship with the feature over the years, starting it and then pausing several times. Twitter has had issues with the privacy of DMs in the past. For instance, in 2018, the platform warned that several DMs between businesses and their customers were accessed by outsiders.
Encryption will be an important part of Musk's Twitter 2.0
Musk wants to make encryption a cornerstone of the new Twitter 2.0 he is shaping. "It should be the case that I can't look at anyone's DMs if somebody has put a gun to my head," he told employees. "We also want to have the ability to do voice and video chat via DMs," the new CEO added.
