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 No? 
 It's kind of a trick question since there is no valid reason for doing cleartext DMs but I'm at the same time genuinely interested in why they went with it anyways. 
 I have no idea. Maybe someone more versed in the protocol can answer? nostr:nprofile1qqsqgc0uhmxycvm5gwvn944c7yfxnnxm0nyh8tt62zhrvtd3xkj8fhgpzdmhxue69uhhqatjwpkx2urpvuhx2ue0hswhhl 
 Poor Alex, we've tagged him multiple times today about this same question in another thread 😂 
 🫠 
 It's cleartext because it's just easier. There have been proposals to do E2EE on Mastodon, and there's even a branch where they implemented Signal's protocol, but it's too hard to have a cross platform experience with the preferred UX unless users control their keys directly, which users on Mastodon don't. 
 makes sense. thanks!