Elon Musk wants Twitter DM’s to be end-to-end encrypted like Signal

Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX and Tesla has recently become the new owner of Twitter and he is already on track to tweaking things with Twitter.

He made a tweet on Thursday that Twitter DM’s will be equipped with end-to-end encryption just like the Signal messaging app, thus possibly bringing better privacy and security over user communications.

Elon Musk and the Twitter Buzz

The Twitter acquisition by Elon Musk saw a transaction value of $44 Billion US Dollars, and $54.20 per share in cash. The deal is expected to be closed in the next six months and will be converted to a private firm.

“Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated,” said Musk.

Twitter DMs should have end to end encryption like Signal, so no one can spy on or hack your messages

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 28, 2022

He also added that “I also want to make Twitter better than ever by enhancing the product with new features, making the algorithms open-source to increase trust, defeating the spam bots, and authenticating all humans.”

The lack of end-to-end encryption for Twitter DMs has been concern, with the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) mentioning how it could affect user privacy and safety. The non-encryption gives Twitter the access to DMs, thus handing over the communication to law enforcement if needed.

The independent human rights impact assessment also highlighted the risks of end-to-end encryption causing some consequences for improved privacy protections, including facilitating child exploitation, spreading hate speech, and distribution of child sexual abuse material (CSAM).

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