Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has confirmed that private messages on X, formerly Twitter, are not encrypted by default, after taking a jab at Meta Platforms Inc.’s META WhatsApp, branding it as “spyware.”
What Happened: A user on X questioned the end-to-end encryption of WhatsApp after noticing targeted ads on Instagram following a private conversation about bags. Musk responded to the query, labeling WhatsApp as “spyware.”
In a separate interaction, Musk was questioned about the encryption of direct messages (DMs) on X. The tech billionaire conceded that the encryption feature for one-to-one messages on the social media platform is not activated by default and called its implementation “clunky.”
He also noted that the company is working on enhancing the feature and extending it to group messages while assuring users that audio and video calls on X are automatically encrypted.
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Why It Matters: Musk’s latest comments add to his previous criticisms of Meta’s privacy practices. In April earlier this year, the tech mogul mocked Meta following an outage of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, attributing it to the platforms being “distracted selling their user's data.”
Last year in May, Musk once again targeted Meta’s messaging service WhatsApp saying it “cannot be trusted,” following allegations by a Twitter engineer that the platform was spying on him through his phone's microphone. Meta eventually responded to the original complaint citing a “bug on Android” as a cause.
Musk has also been a vocal advocate for end-to-end encryption. In April 2022, before acquiring Twitter for $44 billion, he stated that Twitter should have end-to-end encryption for its direct messages to ensure security, similar to Signal.
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