Meredith Whittaker

We love to see it--community-created harm reduction infrastructure in the face of the alarming integration of AI agents into the Windows operating system (which is currently the most reckless deployment environment) <3
https://github.com/zoicware/RemoveWindowsAI
https://s3.eu-central-2.wasabisys.com/mastodonworld/media_attachments/files/115/883/606/237/930/231/original/6b18986674f812bf.png

2026-01-11 13:17:44 UTC

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I also find Barbara Ehrenreich's preface to the book compelling, which you can read here: https://monoskop.org/images/5/54/Theweleit_Klaus_Male_Fantasies_Vol_1_Women_Floods_Bodies_History.pdf
Good material to put in conversation with discourses on the imperial boomerang, as we do the work of tending to our analyses in service of building grounded strategies ♥️

2026-01-11 13:17:17 UTC

Interesting 1987 NYT book review of Klaus Theweleit's *Male Fantasies* "a study of the imaginative world of the German Freikorps movement."
https://www.nytimes.com/1987/06/21/books/the-women-they-feared.html
https://s3.eu-central-2.wasabisys.com/mastodonworld/media_attachments/files/115/876/653/334/893/865/original/03de4b0d0d023c95.png

2026-01-11 12:20:12 UTC

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I have, in fact, addressed it at length. https://mastodon.world/@Mer__edith/115445701583902092
#note1dpd…7faz

2026-01-07 16:05:21 UTC

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Sadly it's not that simple, as we review.

2026-01-07 16:04:39 UTC

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Because I thought we were out of time. I was mistaken. However we stayed after for as long as we could and took questions near the stage.

2026-01-07 14:20:11 UTC

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thanks, edited

2026-01-07 14:09:30 UTC

📣 NEW w/@udbhav-tiwari.bsky.social Mapping the technical reality & privacy/security perils of pushing AI agents into our infra
We offer palliatives, but the core issues are paradigmatic: 'agency' relies on pervasive data access + ability to act w/o explicit consent.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ANECpNdt-4

2026-01-02 11:30:53 UTC

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true, but at least some of their interlocutors almost certainly 'rely on big tech' OS's, so they still need to care.

2025-12-31 16:35:15 UTC

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It's true, I did think we were over time, when in fact we were not over time. But we definitely didn't storm off! We stayed around by the stage for about 15 minutes talking to nice people and answering questions. Then we hung out until late, and again the next day. Hope that helps!

2025-12-25 14:14:42 UTC

Merry Christmas! May you enjoy the cinnamon nutmeg season as much as I do, with all the peace, major chord progressions, warm drinks, butterfat and sparkling this and that, whatever you believe, however work it ❤️🎄
🎁 here's a great album to get your day going https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=oscar+peterson+live+in+tokyo+1862

2025-11-13 17:38:22 UTC

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Eastern. Daylight. Time.

2025-11-13 15:27:08 UTC

Looking for a convivial convo w me & Michael Moynihan covering everything from Snowden to Babbage to why Michael actually cares about privacy to our impoverished def of "AI" and the need to expand it?
👉 7pm EDT tonight, Nov 13th, streaming + archived thereafter: https://www.youtube.com/live/ZYNJ0zpFvqA?si=f1puMnhjVgczJMp0

2025-11-11 18:27:29 UTC

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Thank you! I appreciate your flagging this.

2025-11-11 18:18:30 UTC

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And finally finally, here's a resources you can share and reference with more about how to detect, and protect yourself from scammers and abusers: https://support.signal.org/hc/en-us/articles/9932566320410-Staying-Safe-from-Phishing-Scams-and-Impersonation

2025-11-11 18:15:14 UTC

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Finally, to help you determine the fake and malicious from the genuine, we have signposts (support.signal.org/hc/en-us/art...) in the application that can aid you in identifying fakers and phishing attempts.
We also have tools like Registration Lock to help protect against account takeovers. 6/

2025-11-11 18:15:05 UTC

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If you do receive a message you think is suspicious, report it as Spam and block the sender so that they cannot contact you again. AKA basic comms hygiene to preserve your peace. 5/

2025-11-11 18:14:55 UTC

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Contact with Signal (support.signal.org/hc/en-us/art...) or any Signal representative will ONLY come from an
@signal.org
email address, not from within the app.
And again, we will never ask for your PIN or verification code. And we do not reach out proactively, only in response to your requests.4/

2025-11-11 18:14:44 UTC

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To be crystal clear: Signal will NEVER message you this way. Ever.
And just like with your bank details or passwords, NEVER EVER share your Signal verification code (SMS/Call) or PIN with anyone. Ever. 3/

2025-11-11 18:14:28 UTC

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Right now we're hearing about increased phishing attempts that go like this:
Attackers pretend to be Signal or Signal Support, then message people and try to get them to hand over their verification code or Signal PIN. Information that can let the attacker take over the victim's Signal account. 2/

2025-11-11 18:14:17 UTC

PSA: tips to protect yourself from scams on Signal.
Every major comms platform has to contend w phishing, impersonation, & scams. Sadly.
Signal is major, and as we've grown we've heard about more of these attacks--scammy people pretending to be something or someone to trick and abuse others. 1/

2025-10-27 12:06:36 UTC

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Decentralization at the level of protocol--in Mastodon's case via ActivityPub--does not mean decentralization at the level of infrastructural dependence.

2025-10-27 12:01:18 UTC

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I'm sorry if it landed harsh.
First, I don't think not knowing things is inherently bad or shameful--it's where learning starts, etc. Second, there's a misunderstanding here, whoever is expressing it: decentralization at the level of a protocol--ActivityPub or w/e else--is NOT the same thing as decentralization of infra. People running mastodon instances, or Matrix servers, or other fedi systems, are also in most cases leasing infrastructure from hyperscalers to do so.

2025-10-27 11:58:37 UTC

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No, because no modern and useful comms platform provides only text messaging. And if your platform doesn't provide normative features and functionality, people won't use it. And if they don't use it--even if you do--you can't use it either. The network effect rules communications effectiveness.

2025-10-27 11:26:47 UTC

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We use multiple cloud providers, yes.

2025-10-27 10:55:56 UTC

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I don't think you have a clear understanding of this space, but I hope you have a good time digging in and learning more.

2025-10-27 10:49:12 UTC

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I don't think you have a clear understanding of what you're talking about, and it might be fun for you to look a bit more deeply into how TOR works and its dependencies.

2025-10-27 10:42:04 UTC

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To conclude: my silver lining hope is that AWS going down can be a learning moment, in which the risks of concentrating the nervous system of our world in the hands of a few players become very clear. And that this can help us craft ways of undoing this concentration and creating real choice ❤️ 13/

2025-10-27 10:41:55 UTC

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So, Signal does what we can to provide a service w integrity in the concentrated ecosystem we're working in. We protect your comms w end-to-end encryption, so that we can use AWS and others as a highway across which to send Signal data in ways that don’t let AWS, or anyone else, gain access. 12/

2025-10-27 10:41:46 UTC

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In short, the problem here is not that Signal ‘chose’ to run on AWS. The problem is the concentration of power in the infrastructure space that means there isn’t really another choice: the entire stack, practically speaking, is owned by 3-4 players. 11/

2025-10-27 10:41:37 UTC

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o, yes, Signal runs on AWS. It also runs on your phone, which runs on iOS (Apple) or Android (Google). And on Dekstop, via Windows (Microsoft). Each of these presents similar dependencies on large entrenched tech companies, and concomitant barriers and risks. 10/

2025-10-27 10:41:29 UTC

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But even if Signal had the billions needed to recreate AWS, it’s not just about money. The talent to run these systems is rare & concentrated. The expertise, the tooling, the playbooks, the very language of modern SRE came out of these hyperscalers, and is now synonymous with 'the cloud.' 9/

2025-10-27 10:41:21 UTC

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Meaning that infrastructure like AWS is not something that Signal, or almost anyone else, could afford to just “spin up.” Which is why nearly everyone that manages a real-time service–from Signal, to X, to Palantir, to Mastodon–rely at least in part on services provisioned by these companies. 8/

2025-10-27 10:41:13 UTC

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Such infrastructure costs billions and billions of dollars to provision and maintain, and it’s highly depreciable. In the case of the hyperscalers, the staggering cost is cross-subsidized by other businesses–themselves also massive platforms with significant lockin. 7/

2025-10-27 10:41:02 UTC

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This isn't ‘'renting a server.' It's leasing access to a whole sprawling, capital-intensive, technically-capable system that must be just as available in Cairo as in Capetown, just as functional in Bangkok as Berlin. Particularly given the high stakes use cases of many who rely on Signal. 6/

2025-10-27 10:40:52 UTC

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Instant messaging demands near-zero latency. Voice and video in particular require complex global signaling & regional relays to manage jitter and packet loss. These are things that AWS, Azure, and GCP provide at global scale that, practically speaking, others (in the western context) don’t. 5/

2025-10-27 10:40:43 UTC

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Running a low-latency platform for instant comms capable of carrying millions of concurrent audio/video calls requires a pre-built, planet-spanning network of compute, storage and edge presence that requires constant maintenance, significant electricity and persistent attention and monitoring. 4/

2025-10-27 10:40:29 UTC

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The question isn’t "why does Signal use AWS?" It’s to look at the infrastructural requirements of any global, real-time, mass comms platform and ask how it is that we got to a place where there’s no realistic alternative to AWS and the other hyperscalers. 3/

2025-10-27 10:40:08 UTC

📣THREAD: It’s surprising to me that so many people were surprised to learn that Signal runs partly on AWS (something we can do because we use encryption to make sure no one but you–not AWS, not Signal, not anyone–can access your comms).
It’s also concerning. 1/

2025-10-09 11:43:51 UTC

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So we remain vigilant & deeply grateful to our allies.
For Signal, Chat Control is an existential threat. If we were *forced* to choose between building surveillance into our services or keeping our integrity, we would choose integrity & leave the market. We hope it never comes to this. 7/

2025-10-09 11:42:00 UTC

We're so relieved to see Germany reaffirm its opposition to the dangerous Chat Control proposal--the one that would mandate mass scanning of communications.
Germany's long been a solid champion of privacy, and the news that it was considering backing mass surveillance was alarming. 1/

2025-10-06 07:12:01 UTC

📣 Germany's close to reversing its opposition to mass surveillance & private message scanning, & backing the Chat Control bill. This could end private comms-& Signal-in the EU.
Time's short and they're counting on obscurity: please let German politicians know how horrifying their reversal would be.
https://s3.eu-central-2.wasabisys.com/mastodonworld/media_attachments/files/115/325/969/160/391/750/original/2c653bbe34e65965.png
https://s3.eu-central-2.wasabisys.com/mastodonworld/media_attachments/files/115/325/969/172/169/700/original/e041bcfcab8a52c7.png

2025-09-09 11:49:55 UTC

📣 NEW -- In The Economist, discussing the privacy perils of AI agents and what AI companies and operating systems need to do--NOW--to protect Signal and much else!
https://s3.eu-central-2.wasabisys.com/mastodonworld/media_attachments/files/115/174/179/299/509/965/original/c07b002e61be0789.png
https://s3.eu-central-2.wasabisys.com/mastodonworld/media_attachments/files/115/174/182/449/412/106/original/7c6fee416d0042d9.png

2025-08-11 16:00:21 UTC

New Sunday Times profile in which I succeed, like a fencer in a 2hr marathon match, in fending off Qs abt my personal life & consistently turning focus back to my work & ideas.
(Contra the interviewer's claim, many ppl do know me! They're called friends, & you know who you are ❤️)
https://archive.is/BtZD0
https://s3.eu-central-2.wasabisys.com/mastodonworld/media_attachments/files/115/010/961/492/550/501/original/6b4b655169714bc5.png

2025-07-11 18:26:18 UTC

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No worries! This means that we, at Signal--the ones developing the app--should be able to opt-out as Signal. To say, "no data access for you, Agentic AI." Instead of leaving that to each person who uses Signal (which invites the issues you rightly name--the fact that one person ultimately makes that choice for more than themselves, in a way that could still compromise their interlocutors' privacy).

2025-07-11 18:23:14 UTC

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this is why we're calling for developer-level opt outs, among other things. Not just per-user consent/opt-in.

2025-07-11 17:44:02 UTC

Yes, I did sound the alarm on agentic AI's privacy threat, and rightly so.
https://observer.com/2025/07/signal-meredith-whittaker-agentic-ai-risk/

2025-07-02 10:59:39 UTC

So happy to be joining Burda Media's board of directors! I love a steep learning curve, and this one--schooling up on media business models & opportunities to (re)shape media's relationship to tech--couldn't be more exciting & consequential. Thrilled to contribute ❤️
https://www.burda.com/en/news/meredith-whittaker-joins-burdas-board-directors/

2025-07-01 14:36:10 UTC

How to be classy, how to be cute, how to actually walk the walk...
Love you for this [@cloudflare](https://cloudflare.social/@cloudflare ) ❤️
www.nytimes.com/2025/07/01/t...

2025-06-30 13:00:26 UTC

A big humble thank you to [@time](https://flipboard.com/@time ) and @npub1muz…n2nn for featuring Signal and me in your roundup of 2025’s most influential companies. An honor to serve alongside an incredible group of people backed by a rad movement ❤️
https://time.com/collections/time100-companies-2025/7289620/signal/

2025-06-25 14:32:56 UTC

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Hi, yes, we're aware. We did this to address Microsoft's privacy invasion, and wish we had better tools available. See more: https://signal.org/blog/signal-doesnt-recall/

2025-06-19 08:01:02 UTC

'Meredith,' some guys ask, 'why won't you shove AI into Signal?'
Because we love privacy, and we love you, and this shit is predictable and unacceptable. Use Signal ❤️
https://s3.eu-central-2.wasabisys.com/mastodonworld/media_attachments/files/114/708/972/829/166/537/original/16c1b7d0b90a66fe.png

2025-05-28 09:39:26 UTC

📣 Tomorrow, Sat May 29, Nuits sonores, Lyon France!
I'm coming dance, I'm coming to party, I'm coming to eat, but first I'm sitting down to talk about tech, privacy, Signal, and what it takes to make a world worth living in <3
https://s3.eu-central-2.wasabisys.com/mastodonworld/media_attachments/files/114/584/788/032/698/666/original/ff0b4bb1a2fa5432.png
https://s3.eu-central-2.wasabisys.com/mastodonworld/media_attachments/files/114/584/788/660/729/218/original/9ff16c8141660d5f.png

2025-03-14 11:53:11 UTC

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We don't officially work with any gov, Ukraine or otherwise, and we never stopped. We're not sure where this came from or why.

2025-02-26 13:08:16 UTC

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Oh my goodness. I haven't revisited this in so long...

2025-02-18 12:48:37 UTC

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We're loud when there's talk of breaking encryption and undermining the robust privacy guarantees that those who rely on Signal require. We've been more than clear on our position there.

2025-02-07 07:01:50 UTC

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WA would need to meet our v high privacy/security bar

2025-02-06 20:22:18 UTC

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We will never weaken encryption, add a backdoor, bow or scrape, etc. We would rather shut down or leave a market. Our position does not change based on jurisdiction.

2025-01-25 10:42:58 UTC

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we certainly want to understand how Signal can be a comfortable place that works for everyone. I suggest support@signal.org or our community forum. The team that reads our support@ emails are real, wonderful people who work full-time for Signal and help us understand what's working and what we can fix (bc we don't collect analytics, etc.). Ocf we can't address everything, and there are often deep reasons why a change isn't possible in a privacy preserving way. But we want to know!

2025-01-16 19:29:56 UTC

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Also interested in the answer to this question

2025-01-11 17:16:43 UTC

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I'll be publishing the text with a bibliography soon (when I finish cleaning up the document)

2025-01-03 14:11:04 UTC

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Arguably fake users making fake content we click on, that clicks on us, is fraudulent traffic. And allegations of funny accounting, boring on/constituting fraud have been leveled at Meta for years. Since Meta owns the 'data' and the process of creating it, with almost no accountability, it's not clear to me that this is a bright line that won't be (hasn't already been) crossed.

2025-01-03 13:45:27 UTC

Meta making fake AI bot users is tedious, death drive-coded AI desperation
That aside, the Q I want answered is how fake 'users' will be (dis)counted when calculating ad clicks, auction prices? You know, the already sketchy pseudoscience on which the surveillance biz model house o' cards rests...

2024-12-30 11:14:30 UTC

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Looks like the recording is up. The answer to when the text will be published depends on when I find the time to do a close edit, add in the bibliography, format it, and talk with my CCC friends about where and how to distro. But I'd like it to be soon!
https://media.ccc.de/v/38c3-feelings-are-facts-love-privacy-and-the-politics-of-intellectual-shame

2024-12-24 15:16:14 UTC

Sitting at the dining table, busy condensing 60 pages of unruly notes into 15 pages of more or less coherent text for my upcoming talk at @npub15qj…3kl0.
Every so often I glance up from my computer on this, Christmas Eve, and catch the eye of a family member whose suspicious gaze lets me know that they still don't quite believe that there is in fact a real conference, attended by real people like me, scheduled on Dec 27th.

2024-11-18 08:30:11 UTC

Anyone spending the brief liminal window between Christmas and Georgian new year in Hamburg, with the hackers, at CCC?
I am! And I'll be presenting new research and a new talk ☺️
halfnarp.events.ccc.de
https://s3.eu-central-2.wasabisys.com/mastodonworld/media_attachments/files/113/503/016/630/082/837/original/1d88f0043a155bca.png

2024-11-11 17:41:54 UTC

Tired of zoom, meet, w/e video conferencing software collecting your data?
Signal's got you❤️
NEW: call links let you start a video call with your fave Signal users easily, no group needed. Announcing these, and other improvements to calling here👇
https://signal.org/blog/call-links/

2024-10-31 21:26:41 UTC

I remember Google+, and the idee fixe and mad hype around it. G+ was a ghost town. But for the first year or so the G+ team reported astronomical engagement numbers. Huhh?
Finally we learned they were counting every G+ notification dropped at the top of Gmail as an "engagement."
Anyway, I wonder how they're measuring this...
https://www.businessinsider.com/google-earnings-q3-2024-new-code-created-by-ai-2024-10

2024-09-25 07:48:52 UTC

📣NEW paper! Don’t believe the hype: bigger AI ≠ better AI. @SashaMTL, @GaelVaroquaux and me on how the race to bigger, and bigger AI has bad consequences and isn't necessary.
1. Smaller AI models often perform better than big models in context
And
2. obsession with bigness has severe collateral consequences, from climate costs, to concentrated power, to more surveillance, to the capture of AI research.
All of this, and what we can do instead 👇
arxiv.org/abs/2409.14160
https://s3.eu-central-2.wasabisys.com/mastodonworld/media_attachments/files/113/197/086/235/242/904/original/35f70e3883458c9b.png

2024-08-28 19:14:19 UTC

Such a delight to sit down with the great [@a_greenberg](https://t.l3r.me/users/a_greenberg ) for a long engaged convo on surveillance, AI, my wild path through tech, and how by rejecting the toxic norm Signal provides a shining model for better, healthier tech futures♥️
https://www.wired.com/story/meredith-whittaker-signal/

2024-08-23 12:35:38 UTC

This is such a great resource
https://www.surveillancewatch.io/

2024-07-09 12:04:33 UTC

There’s been some chatter about Signal desktop recently, so let’s clear the air. Three points:
1. The reported issues rely on an attacker already having *full access to your device* — either physically, through a malware compromise, or via a malicious application running on the same device. This is not something that Signal, or any other app, can fully protect against. Nor do we ever claim to.

2024-06-25 12:03:53 UTC

Melbourne!
I'm looking forward to seeing you tomorrow <3
https://www.wheelercentre.com/events/surveillance-technology-and-ai-meredith-whittaker-in-conversation/#ticket

2024-06-17 19:42:07 UTC

📣Official statement: the new EU chat controls proposal for mass scanning is the same old surveillance with new branding.
Whether you call it a backdoor, a front door, or “upload moderation” it undermines encryption & creates significant vulnerabilities
https://signal.org/blog/pdfs/upload-moderation.pdf
https://s3.eu-central-2.wasabisys.com/mastodonworld/media_attachments/files/112/633/659/313/566/843/original/0269937372fbc99f.png

2024-06-11 14:16:04 UTC

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I'm really looking forward to this!

2024-06-06 19:55:21 UTC

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I'm American, so I am not familiar with those histories, and my analysis and perspectives are my own.

2024-06-06 15:32:59 UTC

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Thank you for your work!!!

2024-05-31 12:07:18 UTC

Signal strongly opposes the newest #ChatControl proposal in Europe.
Let there be no doubt: we will leave the EU market rather than undermine our privacy guarantees.
This proposal--if passed and enforced against us--would require us to make this choice.
It's surveillance wine in safety bottles.
See more: https://www.patrick-breyer.de/en/majority-for-chat-control-possible-users-who-refuse-scanning-to-be-prevented-from-sharing-photos-and-links/ @npub1s7d…4chv

2024-05-24 11:53:46 UTC

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The latest example of robust, longstanding expert consensus tirelessly pushing back against politically motivated magical thinking:
https://x.com/carmelatroncoso/status/1785980270664929481

2024-05-24 11:53:17 UTC

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On tech lobbyists involvement (and the corruption that allowed this) see: https://balkaninsight.com/2023/09/25/who-benefits-inside-the-eus-fight-over-scanning-for-child-sex-content/

2024-05-24 11:52:41 UTC

Ignoring expert consensus, feeling no shame following exposés showing tech lobbyists shaping these EU surveillance proposals, EU politicians are at it again
So, we'll reiterate: Signal would rather leave the EU market than subject our users to mass gov surveillance. FULL STOP
https://netzpolitik.org/2024/internes-protokoll-belgien-will-nutzer-verpflichten-chatkontrolle-zuzustimmen/
https://s3.eu-central-2.wasabisys.com/mastodonworld/media_attachments/files/112/495/921/158/967/226/original/8b0d0983f03a5849.png