Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, has been all over the news following his recent purchase on Twitter. The CEO of Tesla, which recently bought Twitter for $44 billion, has been revamping the microblogging website’s working structure to make it profitable. The company advertised Twitter Blue with an $8 verified badge before reverting it following misuse of the feature. There’s a lot going on in the background too. Musk laid off thousands of employees as part of cost-cutting measures, and those who survived the round of layoffs were asked to leave if they couldn’t work more hours. Musk wants employees to give everything to the company to make Twitter a reference platform not only for companies but also for users.
In a bid to make Twitter a safe and secure platform, Musk wants Twitter employees to work on a feature that would encrypt direct messages and work to add encrypted video and voice calls between accounts.
Twitter could be working on encrypted direct messages on Musk’s orders
Elon Musk wants users to use Twitter more than ever. The CEO is working on introducing some features that already exist on various social media platforms and messaging apps. Encrypted messages is one such feature, which is available on WhatsApp. The feature makes conversations more private and secure.
“We want to allow users to be able to communicate without worrying about their privacy, without worrying about a data breach on Twitter causing all their DMs to hit the web, or thinking that maybe someone on Twitter might be spying on their DMs. Obviously, that’s not going to be good and it’s happened multiple times before,” Musk said, according to a report by The Verge.
The microblogging website warned users in 2018 that an undisclosed amount of DMs between companies and their customers had been accessible by outsiders for more than a year. So it makes sense that Musk would want to work on making the platform a more secure platform for users.
Musk had reportedly spoken to Signal creator Moxie Marlinspike for helping to encrypt Twitter direct messages. “Ironically, Moxie Marlinspike worked at Twitter and actually wanted to do encrypted direct messages several years ago. [but] He was denied that and then he went and created Signal,” Musk said.
Musk also wants the company to offer users the ability to have voice and video chats through direct messages. The feature is available on various apps including WhatsApp and Instagram. While these apps don’t directly compete with the Musk-owned app, the lack of these features causes users to spend more time on other rival apps.
What do you think about the new Twitter 2.0? Would you consider using the platform for voice and video calls if you implement such a feature? Let us know in the comments below.
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