Twitter owner Elon Musk discussed plans to encrypt direct messages (DMs) and add new features like video and voice chat. Moreover, Musk may have the creator of the secure messaging platform Signal on board to help.
The Verge reported the details of a meeting between Musk and Twitter employees on Monday, which the publication obtained a recording of. In the meeting, Musk had presentation slides titled “Twitter 2.0,” which was the same term he used in an email to employees demanding they commit to long hours or quit (spoiler: a bunch quit).
“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,” Musk said in the meeting (The Verge notes that Twitter DMs have leaked before).
Encrypted DMs are a top priority for Musk and his Twitter 2.0 vision — during the meeting, he praised Signal and said he spoke with creator Moxie Marlinspike, who was “potentially willing to help out” with encrypting Twitter DMs. Interestingly, Marlinspike previously worked at Twitter and wanted to do encrypted DMs years ago but was denied. He left the company and created Signal.
It’s not clear what Marlinspike’s “help” would look like. If I had to guess, I could see Twitter adopting the Signal Protocol for encrypted DMs, similar to Meta’s WhatsApp, rather than Twitter going its own route. Whatever happens with encrypted DMs will ultimately come down to the current whims of Musk.
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Source: The Verge
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