Letter to Meta: Make Instagram DMs Safe
May 12, 2026
Rob Sherman
VP & Deputy Chief Privacy Officer for Policy
Meta Platforms, Inc.
Adam Mosseri
Head of Instagram
Meta Platforms, Inc.
Mark Zuckerberg
Chairman & CEO
Meta Platforms, Inc.
1 Meta Way
Menlo Park, CA 94025
Dear Mr. Sherman, Mr. Mosseri, and Mr. Zuckerberg,
We are human rights organizations writing to express outrage over recent news that Meta is not only abandoning plans to implement default end-to-end encryption (E2EE) for direct messages on Instagram, but is also removing the option to voluntarily turn on E2EE for messages—a feature that has only been available to users in certain regions.We request Meta immediately course correct by following through on its promises to make Instagram messages private and secure by default, just as it did for Facebook Messenger.
As government agencies around the world and in the US actively weaponize social media apps and the data collected by your platforms to target immigrants, protestors, journalists, LGBTQ people, and others, privacy and security on these apps can’t be optional—they are life-saving necessities.
We strongly applauded Meta’s decision to implement end-to-end encryption by default on Facebook Messenger in December 2023. The announcement came as our communities were still reeling from the impact of Meta’s decision to hand over unencrypted Messenger direct messages (DMs) between a Nebraska teenager and her mother to law enforcement, leading to the teen’s prosecution for choosing to have an abortion.
In the months preceding the December 2023 announcement, Meta sent a letter to Fight for the Future stating: “We remain committed to rolling out default end-to-end encryption for private conversations on Messenger in 2023, and shortly afterwards for Instagram.”
In a 2021 statement Mr. Zuckerberg further voiced his commitment to platform privacy by writing that “On balance, I believe working towards implementing end-to-end encryption for all private communications is the right thing to do. Messages and calls are some of the most sensitive private conversations people have, and in a world of increasing cyber security threats and heavy-handed government intervention in many countries, people want us to take the extra step to secure their most private data.”
Now you are backtracking on these commitments, claiming that very few people have chosen to opt into E2EE for messages on Instagram.
Given the statements by Meta representatives cited above, and the implementation of default E2EE on Messenger, this explanation reads as dishonest and misleading – Meta is well aware that the importance of privacy features should not be evaluated by how many people “opt in.”
It’s never too late to change course. Meta’s commitment in this area has been a model within the industry, and we fully agree with Meta that “[p]rivacy and safety go hand-in-hand” – today more than ever before.
We request that you immediately follow through with plans to implement default end-to-end encryption for Instagram direct messages.
Honoring your goal of providing people with “the safest private messaging apps” rides on the decisions you make in this moment.
Signed,
7amleh – The Arab Center for the Advancement of Social Media
18 MILLION RISING
Access Now
Africa Media and Information Technology Initiative (AfriMITI)
Arkansas Black Gay Men’s Forum
Basic Rights Oregon
Center for Online Safety and Liberty
Chayn
Comunitatea Internet Association
Council of Canadians
CTRL+Z
Cybersecurity Advisors Network
cyberstorm.mu
D64 – Center for Digital Progress
Digital Rights Nepal (DRN)
Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF)
Electronic Frontiers Australia Inc
Equality New Mexico
Erotic Service provider Legal Education and Research Project (ESPLERP)
Feminoteka
Fight for the Future
Freedom Oklahoma
Gate 15
GoodBot
HakiDigital Initiative
Internet Society Catalan Chapter
Internet Society Uganda Chapter
ISOC Brasil
ISOC Switzerland Chapter
Kape Technologies PLC
Koneta Hub- South Sudan
Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition
New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU)
No Tech for Apartheid
Oakland Privacy
OpenMedia
OXCON Frontier Markets
Privacy & Access Council of Canada
Pro-Choice North Carolina
Public Knowledge
Ranking Digital Rights
Restore The Fourth
SMSPool.net
Somalia Non State Actors (SONSA)
space association for participatory development
Surveillance Technology Oversight Project (STOP)
The Tor Project
Tuta
UltraViolet
WA People’s Privacy
Women in Data Science and AI