Twitter source code indicates end-to-end encrypted DMs are coming

guest · Nov 16, 2022

By Bill Toulas @billtoulas - November 16, 2022

Twitter is reportedly working on finally adding end-to-end encryption (E2EE) for direct messages (DMs) exchanged between users on the social media platform.

This is a sought-after and massively requested feature that will help protect private communications from anyone sitting between the conversation parties or even legal requests.
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Twitter had attempted to prototype an E2EE system back in 2018, naming it "Secret Conversation," but it never materialized as a finished product and was later abandoned.

Recent work on bringing E2EE on Twitter DMs was spotted by mobile researcher Jane Manchun Wong, who found new additions to the source code of Twitter for Android, mentioning "encryption keys" on the platform.

"This number was generated from your encryption keys from this conversation. If it matches the number in the recipient's phone, end-to-end encryption is guaranteed," reads one of the strings in the source code.
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Twitter's current owner, Elon Musk, responded to Wong's Tweets with a winking emoji, hinting the feature is indeed under development.
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If Twitter introduces E2EE on DMs, users will feel more comfortable about the security and privacy of their communications under even unfortunate circumstances like platform-impacting hacks.
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guest · Nov 23, 2022

Twitter is making DMs encrypted and adding video, voice chat, per Elon Musk
By Alex Heath @alexeheath - November 22, 2022

Twitter’s new owner, Elon Musk, has been public about his desire to improve how the social network’s direct messages work. In a meeting with employees today, he spelled out exactly what that looks like.
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Framed by presentation slides titled “Twitter 2.0” at Twitter’s San Fransisco headquarters on Monday, Musk told employees that the company would encrypt DMs and work to add encrypted video and voice calling between accounts, according to a recording of the meeting obtained by The Verge.

“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. “That’s obviously not going to be cool and it has happened a few times before.”
Musk went on to say that “we also want to have the ability to do voice and video chat via DMs.”
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guest · Nov 24, 2022

Elon Musk wants encrypted messaging for Twitter. It might not be that simple.
By Tonya Riley @TonyaJoRiley | Cyberscoop - November 23, 2022

For years privacy advocates have pushed Twitter to roll out end-to-end encrypted messaging on the platform. Now, Elon Musk appears to be moving toward finally delivering this long-sought feature, but his deep cuts to the company’s workforce and chaotic management style are raising major questions about whether he can do so responsibly.
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In a presentation to employees this week, Musk laid out his vision for encrypted messaging on the platform. “We want to enable users to be able to communicate without being concerned about their privacy,” Musk said, according to a recording of the presentation obtained by The Verge. Users, he said, should be able to message one another “without being concerned about a data breach at Twitter causing all of their DMs to hit the web.”

But experts are deeply skeptical that Musk can execute on his plan while addressing the serious safety concerns that a move to encrypted messaging entails.

“It’s not the math that’s hard,” said Bruce Schneier, a renowned security technologist and lecturer in public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School. “It’s the software engineering to get it out there.”
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“E2EE is not a feature which you credibly lash together with cable-ties and duct tape,” Alec Muffett, a software engineer who led the team that built the first end-to-end encryption system for Facebook Messenger in 2016, wrote in a message to CyberScoop.
Twitter has not announced a timeline for encrypting DMs. CyberScoop reached out to Twitter’s press office for comment and did not receive a response. It is unclear if any communications employees at Twitter remain.

Experts note that encrypted services don’t exist in a vacuum and require weighing questions of security against abuse.
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Twitter source code indicates end-to-end encrypted DMs are coming

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