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While most social media platforms have added end-to-end encryption (E2EE) to their chats or are working toward it, TikTok has ruled out adding that privacy layer to its direct messages.
The app reportedly aims to make it easier for law enforcement and TikTok safety officials to access messages, if needed, the BBC reports. It argues that this is to keep kids safe from harassment because adding encryption would block access to all DMs.
With E2EE, a message is scrambled so that only the sender and receiver can view it. The content is inaccessible to the service provider and law enforcement agencies. Apple’s iMessage, Google Messages, Signal, WhatsApp, Facebook, X, and Messenger support E2EE. Telegram lets you decide whether to use it.
A TikTok USDS spokesperson tells PCMag that its approach to messaging has not changed and that DMs are encrypted in transit and at rest. "Our messaging system has long been designed to balance user privacy with the ability to respond to scams, harassment, and other safety concerns when users report them or when required by law," the spokesperson said.
TikTok didn't specifically address any E2EE plans, but said: "Access to message content is strictly limited, subject to internal authorization controls, and only available to trained personnel with a demonstrated need to review information as part of safety investigations, legal compliance, or other limited circumstances."
One of the major reasons President Biden signed the TikTok divestment bill in 2024 was concern that its owner, China-based ByteDance, could turn over US user data to the Chinese government. After a recent divestment, TikTok’s US operations are handled by a joint venture named TikTok USDS, which stores and manages US user data on local servers.
Internet safety orgs, however, argue that E2EE puts kids at risk, "preventing the detection of child sexual abuse and exploitation and contributing to a worrying global decline in reports,” Rani Govender, associate policy head for the UK’s National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC), tells the BBC.
Editors' Note: This story was updated with comment from TikTok USDS.