Amazon-owned Wickr is shutting down its free encrypted messaging app • TechCrunch

Safe communications supplier Wickr has introduced that it’ll shutter its free encrypted messaging app, Wickr Me, subsequent yr.

Wickr was based in 2011 and have become one of many first mainstream end-to-end encrypted messaging apps, till it was acquired by Amazon’s cloud companies large Amazon Internet Providers in 2021.

In a publish revealed Friday, Amazon stated that Wickr Me will shut down for good on December 31, 2023. Amazon says the app will cease accepting new person registrations on December 31, 2022 earlier than it’s discontinued fully the next yr.

The shutdown will solely have an effect on the consumer-facing model of Wickr, which has develop into standard amongst journalists and whistleblowers trying to ship end-to-end encrypted and self-destructing messages. Wickr’s different merchandise, that are geared in direction of authorities businesses, army organizations, and enterprises, gained’t be impacted.

“After cautious consideration, we will likely be concentrating Wickr’s concentrate on securing our enterprise and public sector prospects’ knowledge and communications with AWS Wickr and Wickr Enterprise, and have determined to discontinue our client product, Wickr Me,” Amazon stated, including that the corporate was engaged on permitting Wickr prospects to securely talk with people exterior of their group.

The shutdown announcement follows reviews that the corporate’s free messaging app had allowed criminals to change photographs of kid sexual abuse. In June, NBC Information, citing court docket paperwork, legislation enforcement, and activists, stated Amazon had achieved “little” to proactively tackle the issue.

Wickr’s, whose backers have included the CIA and controversial personal safety agency Blackwater, had additionally develop into a hub for drug sellers compelled off the darkish net by the closures of infamous unlawful items marketplaces similar to Silk Highway, in accordance with reviews.