Some of it was the latter. Matrix servers could be used in the past to store and serve unauthenticated media to anyone[0], which was described by the team as "n

Some of it was the latter. Matrix servers could be used in the past to store and serve unauthenticated media to anyone[0], which was described by the team as "not great"[1] and "abuse of Matrix as a content distribution network" [2]. I believe the team was prudent in being reserved about describing the issue (and the abuse it could entail) until after these changes rolled out in 2024[1], especially due to the unique challenges they required (including putting a freeze on unauthenticated media as part of the upgrade process). [0]: https://matrix.org/blog/2024/06/26/sunsetting-unauthenticated-media/ https://matrix.org/blog/2024/06/26/sunsetting-unauthenticate... [1]: https://2024.matrix.org/documents/talk_slides/LAB4%202024-09-21%2010_45%20Travis%20Ralston%20-%20Authenticated%20Media%20&%20How%20to%20ship%20spec%20features.pdf https://2024.matrix.org/documents/talk_slides/LAB4%202024-09... [2]: https://matrix.org/blog/2025/02/building-a-safer-matrix/ https://matrix.org/blog/2025/02/building-a-safer-matrix/ [3]: https://matrix.org/blog/2024/06/20/matrix-v1.11-release/ https://matrix.org/blog/2024/06/20/matrix-v1.11-release/