Tell Meta: Don’t Sell Our Safety for Profit. Protect DMs on Instagram.

Meta promised safe DMs but is selling us out.

Not only is Meta abandoning one of its most important safety commitments ever—to implement default end-to-end encryption for Instagram DMs—the company has also reportedly terminated the option to manually turn on end-to-end encryption as of May 8, 2026, a feature that was only made available in select countries.

This betrayal is especially shameful given the enormous steps other Big Tech companies are taking to secure our messages—like Google and Apple’s recent roll out of default end-to-end encryption for RCS text messages between iPhone and Android users. 

End-to-end encryption (E2EE) protects messages all the way from sender to recipient, so that no one—not even Meta—can see what you’re saying. E2EE keeps your messages safe from police and ICE surveillance, stalkers, your creepy ex who works at Meta, and hackers who want to steal your account information. End-to-end encrypted messages are more important than ever in the face of an administration that will do anything and everything to silence and punish its critics—like demanding that social media platforms hand over account info for users speaking out against ICE.

Meta promised to make DMs end-to-end encrypted BY DEFAULT on Instagram after implementing default E2EE for messages on Facebook Messenger—a move that followed many months of pressure from Fight for the Future and dozens of human rights organizations.

Just one clear example of the life-altering risks of unencrypted DMs are the state-level attacks on abortion seekers. In 2022 Meta handed over to police private messages between a Nebraska teenager and her mother that were then used to prosecute the young woman for choosing to have an abortion. If Messenger was default end-to-end encrypted at that time, Meta would never had access to the messages in the first place.

Meta itself has said in multiple statements that default E2EE is a critical way to protect people online.

But now that the issue of end-to-end encrypted DMs has faded from the news headlines, Meta is quietly backtracking on its commitments and blaming users for the decision, claiming people aren’t interested in E2EE because “no one is opting in.” That excuse is total BS.

We know what this is really about. Meta is using some bogus excuse to drop its plans for default E2EE on Instagram so that it can 1) tap your DMs to train its AI and 2) curry political favor with the Trump administration by opening up access to your private messages for spying and surveillance.

We’re not standing for it. Demand Meta do what it promised to do, and what it has repeatedly said is best-practice: Make DMs on Instagram E2EE by default.

Petition text:

I call on Meta to immediately implement default end-to-end encryption for messaging on Instagram, just like it did for Facebook Messenger. As communities around the world come under attack by fascist leaders like Trump, privacy and security on social media apps can’t be “optional”—they are life-saving necessities. No one should have side-door access to our private messages. Companies have the responsibility to build privacy features into their platforms by default, instead of forcing users to go the extra step of “opting into” these features.