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Mastodon will get end-to-end encryption for private messages thanks to Sovereign Tech Agency
(blog.joinmastodon.org)
this post was submitted on 14 Apr 2026
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Do you have a source you could share about admins only seeing the private messages of local users? That's not my understanding.
Take a look at this post or this one . They say that the admins of both the sending and receiving instance could decide to read your direct messages.
Privacy isn't just for illegal acts. (And plenty of laws are unjust) You're right that for truly sensitive communication it's better to choose a tool dedicated for that purpose. It can still be beneficial to add encrypted communication to direct messages.
Yes that is what I mean, admins can only see private messages that their own local users are either sending or receiving. Not from users on other instances.
I agree that privacy is important, but most admins probably couldnt care less what their users are writing in private messages. And there is a tradeoff between implementing end-to-end encryption, or implementing other features that may be more important.