Invidious link: https://invidious.tiekoetter.com/watch?v=TzGEmXync5M
An overview of Signal’s long list of flaws (phone number id, Play service payments, centralized infrastructure, etc) and the history of The Signal Foundation of ignoring many of these issues.
Signal is disappointing. And I am tired of pretending that it’s not. I have been using and recommending Signal for longer than it existed. Signal just came out with a feature we have been waiting for for 8 years.
You see 8 years ago, the only flaw Signal had was that it required a phone number to register and find contacts. This was bad, because it meant you couldn’t get an anonymous Signal account, which meant you could get hacked or abused by anyone who knew your phone number. It was also easy for authoritarians to censor people’s access to Signal by denying phone registrations by country code.
The reason for the phone number requirement was to prevent spam. The primary function, was to use your phonebook to quickly onboard new users and send notifications whenever anyone in your contact list signed up on Signal. A very convenient Silicon Valley feature that allowed people to quickly connect with their friends and also let domestic abusers find out their victims are trying to contact a lawyer’s office over Signal.
Finally after years and years I managed to get more and more people migrating to Signal, away from WhatsApp. Only because more and more people are on signal.
It may not be perfect, but it’s so much better than WhatsApp and Telegram.
No one is going to install a super secure app of no one else uses it. Most people don’t care. They just want to be in touch with everyone.
This is the same argument for that Twitter is still the main platform for politicians in my country, even though it’s a fascist pedo hate speech board now (the new 4chan). Politicians: “Yeah I want to move away from Twitter, but all the journalists are on there”. Journalists: “Yeah I want to move away from Twitter, but I will miss all the politician’s messages.”
People seriously are this stupid, and in politics at the same time.
Imagine having to convince boomer parents and colleagues / boss to move to an app most of their friends, colleagues, business associates, family etc. are not using. Then imagine having to tell them they should actually move to an app no one they know uses, except me. They will tell you “fuck that shit, I have nothing to hide anyway, I’ll just use WhatsApp instead.”
I think this should be solved by legislation. There are already many European government instances, and think its the way. it’s a risk that institutional communications depend on some billionaire’s whim. A legislation that forces politicians (at least the ones in office) to use the corresponding governmental fediverse instances could solve these problems.
I totally agree. The issue however, is that this needs to be implemented by politicians, who are (with just a few exceptions) unwilling to change.