Have you seen this news?
#Mastodon just got funding to add end to end encryption into their software.
So, some time next year, you’ll be able to send truly private messages to the vast majority of the #Fediverse
Im so excited about this.
Because it’s an open spec, this opens the doors for every Fediverse app to join the party.
Yesterday, this project was a proof of concept. Today, Mastodon has turned it into a stampede.
https://blog.joinmastodon.org/2026/04/sovereign-tech-agency-funding/
@benpate 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.
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.
Ben Pate 🤘🏻
senna.apk
Evan Prodromou