The encrypted messaging app Signal is receiving a wave of new users after Tesla CEO Elon Musk told his Twitter followers to use the service.
The flood of sign-ups on Thursday caused Signal to delay sending the verification codes needed to activate new user accounts. However, the nonprofit organization behind the app said it was ecstatic about the increase in activity.
Hours before, Musk tweeted to his followers “Use Signal” in an apparent attempt to discourage people from using WhatsApp, a rival messaging app from Facebook.
The tweet came after WhatsApp announced a new privacy policy that covers how it can share user data with Facebook. The practice is nothing new, but the policy update has made headlines about concerns that users will hardly be able to keep their WhatsApp data separate from Facebook – a company with a notorious track record in digital privacy.
Early Thursday morning, Musk intruded by posting a meme portraying Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, shamelessly lying to a child about the data his company might collect.
It is certainly easy to criticize Facebook. But the company says that, in practice, WhatsApp’s new privacy policy will not mean any change for users when it comes to chats with friends or family. Instead, the update is mainly about the data that companies can store and collect in WhatsApp chats with users.
In addition, if you previously chose to prevent WhatsApp from sharing data with Facebook during a single option in 2016, the company says it will continue to honor your choice.
So why is Musk telling people to try Signal? It is true that both WhatsApp and Signal provide free end-to-end encrypted messages. This means that not even the provider, like Facebook, can read the content of your messages – only the sender and recipient of the messages.
However, Facebook is a business focused on mining people’s data primarily for the purpose of targeting ads. Signal, on the other hand, is managed by a non-profit foundation. It even went so far as to refuse venture capital financing to prevent financial profit from directing its focus. The app also received endorsement from NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey.
As for Musk, he is not a Facebook fan and already said the social network “sucks”. On Wednesday, he gave Facebook another chance amid the violence of the United States Capitol crowd.