In the wake of posts from Elon Musk regarding alleged vulnerabilities in the Signal messaging app, its president, Meredith Whittaker, has been working tirelessly to manage the situation.
What Happened: A social media post from Musk in May about supposed “known vulnerabilities” in the encrypted messaging app Signal has had serious consequences. Whittaker told Wired, she spent “two nights of me not sleeping, just dealing with Twitter stuff.”
Musk, who endorsed the app in 2021 saying, “Use Signal,” seems to have reversed his position. “He’s been a fan. So I don’t know what changed,” Whittaker said. She denied Musk’s allegations, calling them unfounded and unsupported by any “serious report”.
“What I do know is that, as far as we know, the claim was completely baseless,” Whittaker said.
Signal, renowned for its “end-to-end encryption” and open-source code, has been under the microscope recently. Pavel Durov, CEO of competitor app Telegram, criticized Signal, claiming it was not a secure option for private messaging.
Whittaker rejected these allegations, expressing disappointment over such discourse, which she believes could cause real security disruptions, especially for the majority of Signal users who can’t verify the validity of these claims.
Why It Matters: This controversy comes in the wake of a competitive landscape where Signal, is vying for market share with Mark Zuckerberg-led Meta Platform Inc.’s WhatsApp and Durov’s Telegram. Durov had previously claimed that Telegram was gaining users at a rapid pace.
However, Durov’s recent arrest in France and Musk’s subsequent reaction, hinting at extreme regulation and censorship in Europe, have added another layer to the narrative. Musk also praised El Salvador President Nayib Bukele’s commitment to freedom of speech amid Durov’s arrest.
Furthermore, Zuckerberg recently revealed that Meta faced pressure from President Joe Biden‘s administration to censor certain COVID-19 content, adding to the ongoing debate about freedom of speech and security in digital communication platforms.
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This story was generated using Benzinga Neuro and edited by Kaustubh Bagalkote
© 2024 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
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