Court Filing: Meta Executive Called Messenger Encryption Irresponsible
A Meta executive privately warned that a plan to roll out encryption on Facebook Messenger was “so irresponsible,” according to a court filing that describes internal communications about the company’s approach to message security.
The filing, reported by Reuters, cites internal messages attributed to a Meta executive in which the executive criticized the Messenger encryption plan in stark terms. The language referenced in the filing includes concerns that the move would make it harder to detect child exploitation, reflecting internal debate over safety tradeoffs tied to encrypted messaging.
Meta, the parent company of Facebook, has been pushing to expand encryption across its messaging products. Encryption can prevent third parties from reading messages in transit, but it can also reduce visibility into harmful activity if platforms cannot access message content. The court filing indicates that, inside the company, at least one senior figure viewed the Messenger plan as creating unacceptable risk.
The internal warning surfaced through litigation, with the court record describing the executive’s comments and the broader discussion among Meta personnel. The filing does not, on its face, resolve what final decisions were made in response to those warnings, but it documents that high-level concerns were raised as the company considered product changes.
The disclosure matters because it highlights the tension major tech platforms face when trying to balance privacy features against safety enforcement. For messaging services, expanded encryption can be a selling point for users seeking more private communications. At the same time, it can complicate efforts to investigate and stop abuse, including child exploitation, which remains a central focus for law enforcement and child-safety advocates.
For Meta, the filing adds new scrutiny to how executives weighed those competing priorities. The presence of blunt internal language in the court record may also shape how regulators, policymakers, and the public evaluate the company’s safeguards around Messenger and its broader messaging ecosystem.
The court filing also arrives as debate continues in Washington and abroad over how much responsibility platforms should bear for policing harmful activity, and what technical measures companies should be required to build or maintain. While encryption policy is often discussed in general terms, the filing provides a window into specific internal misgivings about a concrete product direction.
Next, the case in which the filing was made is expected to proceed through additional motions and potential hearings, which could bring more internal documents and testimony into the public record. Further court filings may clarify the context of the executive’s remarks and how the company addressed the concerns raised in internal conversations.
For now, the court record puts Meta’s internal disagreement over Messenger encryption on the record, underscoring that the debate over privacy and safety is not just external pressure, but also a live issue inside the company.
