Hi John,

We were prepared for something like this, but it doesn’t make it any less awful. In Texas, three women are being sued for “wrongful death” after allegedly helping their friend access abortion pills. The evidence against them? Their group chat.¹

In the post-Roe world, our text messages aren’t safe. And as time drags on, we’re only going to see more cases of “private” messages being used to fine people or put them behind bars. End-to-end encryption won’t stop all of this, but it’d be a huge step towards more safety for more people. That’s why we’re demanding companies step up and encrypt messages by default. Can you add your name to our open letter?

Make DMs Safe!

If you’ve followed our work, you know we’re no friends to Big Tech. But making end-to-end encryption the default on every platform is a victory I feel confident we can win. And it’d make a massive difference for anyone whose speech and safety is at risk.

Abortion funds and reproductive healthcare providers would be safer from DA probes if platforms couldn’t turn over their work messages—and if E2EE were standard, tech companies wouldn’t be able to see those messages in the first place. We know that Big Tech is so scared of lawsuits that they’d risk a user’s safety to avoid a fine.² That’s scummy and awful, but it also makes E2EE-by-default a win-win.

Our Make DMs Safe campaign launched in October, and it’s already getting results. Apple announced it would encrypt iCloud backups, and Meta accelerated plans for default encrypted messaging.^3,4 The case in Texas is another inflection point—and putting tons of public pressure on these companies is the way to win. Sign our letter and tell Big Tech to encrypt our DMs and protect our speech.

Thanks for all you do,

Leila at Fight for the Future

1. Texas Tribune: https://www.texastribune.org/2023/03/10/texas-abortion-lawsuit/

2. Business Insider: https://www.businessinsider.com/police-getting-help-social-media-to-prosecute-people-seeking-abortions-2023-2

3. Fight for the Future press release: https://www.fightforthefuture.org/news/2022-12-07-big-news-apple-to-end-to-end-encrypt-icloud-backups

4. Meta press release: https://about.fb.com/news/2023/01/expanding-features-for-end-to-end-encryption-on-messenger/