Post #1150026

2026-04-14 13:17 UTC

@benpate@mastodon.social I'm wondering what the advantage of e2ee private messages on Mastodon is when we have Signal, Matrix and other robust encrypted messaging tools that you could invite a friend to if you want to have a private conversation. Is anyone worried about this creating moderation issues? Generally I'm in favor of privacy and security, but I'm just not sure what the value of this feature is on Mastodon. Maybe you or others can provide your perspective on this.

Replies (4)

@benpate@mastodon.social 2026-04-14 13:23

@earth_walker@mindly.social I don’t have all the answers, but I believe there’s a network effect at work. Signal is fantastic. I use it for lots of things. But it’s “yet another” place to go. But the Fediverse is my primary place to talk with people (like you) If you and I could have a truly private follow-on discussion without switching networks, it would be a win for the Fediverse.

Open ##1150025
@evan@cosocial.ca 2026-04-14 13:23

@earth_walker @benpate It's not either-or. You can use both. If you prefer to switch apps and identities and go over to Signal, awesome. If you'd rather message someone with your ActivityPub identity, you can do that securely now, too. The E2EE work on ActivityPub uses an open standard, MLS, to encrypt data. One reason we chose it was so it's at least possible to bridge to other social and messaging networks while keeping the data encrypted from end to end.

Open ##1229208
@ovoao@mastodon.social 2026-04-14 17:36

@earth_walker@mindly.social @benpate@mastodon.social If people are already on Signal, good for them. But the real issue is getting people off the Meta apps. So if there's a good Fedi Messenger, that can definitely help! 😊👍

Open ##4259752
@ohmu@social.seattle.wa.us 2026-04-14 19:13

@earth_walker@mindly.social @benpate@mastodon.social Yes. The very first thing that occurred to me reading this was: "Hmm. Adding E2EE without first implementing the long requested tools to make it less easy to harass people is going to potentially make moderation more challenging and Mastodon more unsafe than it is."

Open ##4259753