The encrypted messaging app Signal sees a spate of new users after Tesla CEO Elon Musk told his Twitter followers to use the service.
The flood of reports on Thursday briefly caused Signal to delay the verification codes needed to activate new user accounts. Nevertheless, the non-profit organization behind the app said it is ecstatic about the increase in activity.
Hours earlier, Musk tweeted to his followers “Use signal” in an apparent attempt to discourage people from using WhatsApp, a competitive messaging app owned by Facebook.
The tweet came after WhatsApp announced a new privacy policy on how it can share user data with Facebook. The practice is nothing new, but the policy update has grabbed the headlines about concerns that users will have almost no way to keep their WhatsApp data from Facebook – a company with a notorious record of digital privacy.
Early Thursday morning, Musk walked in by posting a meme depicting Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg for a child about the data his company could collect.
It’s definitely easy to bash Facebook. But the company says in practice, the new WhatsApp privacy policy means no change for users when it comes to chatting with friends or family members. Instead, the update is primarily about the data that businesses can store and collect via WhatsApp chats with users.
If you previously chose to withhold WhatsApp from sharing data in 2016 during a one-time option with Facebook, the company says it will continue to respect your choice.
So why does Musk tell people to try Signal? It is true that both WhatsApp and Signal offer free end-to-end encrypted messages. This means that not even the provider, such as Facebook, can read the content of your messages – only the sender and recipient of the messages.
However, Facebook is a business focused on extracting people’s data, primarily for advertising targets. Signal, on the other hand, is managed by a non-profit foundation. It has gone so far as to refuse venture capital financing to prevent financial profit from driving its focus. The app also received approval from NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey.
As for Musk, he is not a fan of Facebook, and has done so said the social network “sucks”. On Wednesday, he took another hit on Facebook amid the violence in the U.S. Capitol.