If you’ve ever wondered about secure messaging on TikTok, you now have an answer. TikTok told it won’t add end-to-end encryption to its direct messages. The company believes this decision will actually make users safer.
During a security briefing at its London office, TikTok explained that end-to-end encryption would stop its safety teams and law enforcement from reading messages when necessary. The app, owned by ByteDance, presented this as a conscious choice made to protect its users, especially younger ones, on the platform.
End-to-end encryption means only the person sending a message and the person receiving it can read it. This technology isn’t commonly used in China, where ByteDance is based. However, TikTok didn’t say if its parent company influenced this decision.
TikTok stated that messages sent through its app still have standard encryption. Only authorized employees can access them if the app receives a request from authorities or user reports about harmful behavior. Many other apps offer end-to-end encrypted communication. Apple’s iMessage and Google Messages use it, along with Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Telegram, and Signal. It seems TikTok won’t be the place for secure messaging.
It’s unclear if TikTok’s US branch holds the same view. Remember, TikTok made a deal to spin off its US business, now called the TikTok USDS Joint Venture. A group of non-Chinese investors, including Oracle, bought an 80 percent share in the app, with ByteDance keeping only 19.9 percent. This US entity will manage content moderation in the country and retrain TikTok’s algorithm using US user data.
