I support the cause in general but: Signal is not federated at all. It may seem like a decent alternative to WhatsApp but is it really? It still falls under the same US jurisdiction. Let's say the US gov starts agressively prosecuting dissidents and certain minorities (they already do): can and should we still use signal in this case? I don't think so. Sadly i can't name a much better alternative. Maybe matrix. But it has other issues.

[–] Bazoogle@lemmy.world 19 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

Signal is open source. They absolutely do always comply with US warrants. They have never provided any information to US law enforcement, because they can't access it. They literally have no way of accessing the information contained inside the texts. The most they could provide is metadata, but they currently aren't collecting that. I also think if they started, it would not work well for their user base. You can see all their requests for information, and the responses they gave, here: https://signal.org/bigbrother/

[–] teri@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 3 hours ago

I really hope they stand strong. We need some influential entities standing up to the shit going on. Sadly, given the current situation in the US I have to assume that the Trump gang will sooner or later try to crack down on Signal. Who knows, forcing them to give out meta data to identify dissidents etc.

At least the open-source app makes me hope that there's a little less nasty things they can do than Facebook/Whatsapp.

[–] Shape4985@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 hours ago

There is also simplex chat

[–] JigglySackles@lemmy.world 3 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago) (2 children)

Is Threema still a good option? Anyone know? I know it's not a fediverse instance just a secure messaging platform. On that note though, can any federated platform really be used as secure messaging? Or is it too open?

[–] hobbsc@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 1 hour ago

I use threema with family but getting others to use yet another app (especially for thin social connections) is difficult.

Depends on your threat model though, I guess.

[–] teri@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 3 hours ago

My personal opinion is that Threema is still a viable alternative to WhatsApp. The app is open-source, there's even a 'libre' variant on F-Droid. The service is proprietary though. The jurisdiction (Switzerland) seems more trustworthy currently. I don't really understand the business model of Threema: It seems like they have some revenue from a commercial service "Threema Work". The initial cost for purchasing an app license does not really contribute to sustainability I guess. I suspect it is more for making scams more expensive. I hope they can be sustainable from that and don't need to start doing shit.

[–] drathvedro@lemm.ee 3 points 6 hours ago

Let’s say the US gov starts agressively prosecuting dissidents and certain minorities (they already do): can and should we still use signal in this case?

Definitely no. Russian government already is aggressively prosecuting dissidents and you can't join Signal there. I don't know whether it's due to sanctions or if the government is blocking 2FA SMS messages. In either case, it is impossible to join without a phone number confirmation. At least I wasn't able to. I don't see the USA being that far off with all the recent TikTok drama.

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