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Meredith Whittaker on Monday vouched for Signal’s security as questions were raised over the platform’s new chairman’s political ideology. She defended the platform’s integrity stating that no one can change the app’s transparency policy.
Whittaker’s reaction came after Elon Musk responded to a tweet about the change in leadership at Signal with a jibe that the platform has security vulnerabilities.
Musk tweeted that “known vulnerabilities” are not being addressed on his platform. His tweet was later corrected by the platform’s community notes which shared that there were no explicit vulnerabilities that could verify this claim.
Whittaker, the president of Signal, responded to Musk’s tweet clarifying that there was no evidence of his claim and they follow “responsible disclosure practices” which notifies users about any issues found.
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Musk had referred to an article by a publisher called ‘City Journal’ which implied a nexus between the app and U.S. intelligence agencies as proof to his claim. The article spoke specifically about Katherine Maher, the chair of the board of directors on Signal, who is also CEO of NPR. Maher had been appointed as a member to the US State Department’s Foreign Affairs Policy Board by Hillary Clinton between 2022 and 2023 and was accused of promoting left-wing policies.
Whittaker argued against the allegations made by Musk saying that regardless of whether people liked or disliked Maher, the app itself was very transparent about its security.
Earlier this year in February, the app enhanced its security features by introducing a username feature that would disable phone number sharing with random strangers.
In October last year, the app investigated rumours that had spread online on X which alleged that Signal had a zero-day vulnerability. The company later clarified that there was no vulnerability found.
Ironically, back in 2021, Musk himself had endorsed the app as an alternative to WhatsApp.
On the other hand, direct messages on X don’t have airtight end-to-end encryption yet, despite Musk having promised the same earlier.
