Signal – An Ethical Replacement for WhatsApp

You may not need any incentive to do this, but I’m going to argue that moving from WhatsApp to Signal is an important action, right now. There are other alternatives to WhatsApp, of course, but several have received criticism over various issues so I’m going to focus on Signal here. Please comment below if you’d like to propose ethical alternatives to WhatsApp.  

In March I argued that we should choose Bluesky over X/Twitter, based on the obvious reason of boycotting companies connected to Musk. Bluesky is structured as a benefit corporation (like Patagonia) and based on an open network, two features that create strong incentives for the company to not upset its users.

This creates an alignment between Bluesky and its users – Bluesky is disincentivized to make a bad user experience. This also acts as a kind of poison pill against a billionaire takeover, or at least a deterrent against this.

Moving from X/Twitter to Bluesky does require some sacrifice for people who worked hard to build up a following on the former. But we’ve reached a point where support of Musk is unconscionable, whatever the sacrifice involved. The move from WhatsApp to Signal, however, is quite straightforward and completely painless. But in this case, some may be wondering, why should I bother moving at all?

Ethical issues with WhatsApp

My biggest issues with using WhatsApp are related to its parent corporation, Meta (formerly Facebook) and its founder/CEO Mark Zuckerberg. But first, I want to mention a few issues specific to WhatsApp.

In early 2021, WhatsApp updated its terms of service, requiring users to opt into sharing their data with Facebook – including network details and location (even if you haven’t turned on location sharing). This 180° reversal on an earlier promise made by Zuckerberg that “WhatsApp is going to operate completely autonomously” was one of several events over the last 5 years that accelerated an exodus from WhatsApp to Signal. The large amount of metadata that WhatsApp collects is also shared with law enforcement agencies.

WhatsApp shares metadata, unencrypted records that can reveal a lot about a user’s activity, with law enforcement agencies such as the Department of Justice. Some rivals, such as Signal, intentionally gather much less metadata to avoid incursions on its users’ privacy, and thus share far less with law enforcement. – ProPublica

I have to admit that I don’t give a huge amount of time fretting over these things during normal times. But we no longer live in normal times – people are now guilty by suspicion (or by association, based on their WhatsApp contacts) and convicted without due process.

Over the years, Zuckerberg and Meta have done more flip flopping than a White Lotus guest (walking around in flip-flops, you see). Facebook has since been fined €110 million by EU antitrust regulators and $5 billion by the US Federal Trade Commission for deceiving regulators and users. Following this greater level of scrutiny, Zuckerberg has shown himself to be a person of little scruples, capitulating to whoever will do him favors.

Meta and Zuckerberg

Meta – a company so bad that it had to change its name to try to clean its reputation. The Facebook–Cambridge Analytica scandal involved the collection of user data without consent to create psychographic profiles that were used in Donald Trump’s 2016 election campaign and suppressing Black voters in Trinidad and Tobago. WhatsApp, in particular, played a role in the Brazil’s 2018 election.

The vast majority of false information shared on WhatsApp in Brazil during the presidential election favoured the far-right winner, Jair Bolsonaro. The analysis sheds light on the spread of misinformation on the Facebook-owned app, with fears it could be poisoning political debate in one of the largest democracies in the world. – The Guardian.

Companies supporting Jair Bolsonaro are buying a service called “mass blasts,” using the candidate’s list of WhatsApp users or buying lists from agencies specializing in digital strategy. – Folha de S.Paulo.

In 2018, Zuckerberg testified before US Congress, admitting: “It was my mistake, and I’m sorry.”

Aww! You’re totally forgiven, Zuck! You’ve learned your lesson, right?

But wait! Last year, as you probably know, Zuckerberg did the cowardly act of endorsing Trump by implication. I happened to catch this interview with the Zuck live on Bloomberg and was totally gagged (Hey Gen Z readers!). Take a look and marvel at Zuck sticking to his guns and maintaining his neutrality:

Post-election, Zuck flew down to Florida for dinner with Trump (I’m imagining scenes from the hunting episode of Succession) and then got rid of DEI and moderation and all that weak stuff. It didn’t take long for Zuck to switch from humility (It was my mistake, and I’m sorry) to going on the Joe Rogan show to say this:

“Masculine energy is good, and obviously, society has plenty of that, but I think corporate culture was really trying to get away from it,” Zuckerberg continued. “I think having a culture that celebrates the aggression a bit more has its own merits that are really positive.” – Mashable. 

Zuckerberg’s shirt declared Aut Zuck aut nihil, which means Zuck or nothing. Zuckerberg is referencing the Latin phrase Aut Caesar aut nihil, drawing a direct parallel between himself and the Roman dictator. Jay Graber’s shirt says Mundus sine Caesaribus, or, a world without Caesars. See more on Graber in Bluesky versus Twitter/X.

Ethical review of Signal

Signal provides a very similar user experience to WhatsApp, so switching over is pretty seamless. This is not too surprising, considering that the current CEO of Signal LLC., Brian Action, was one of the cofounders of WhatsApp. WhatsApp was acquired by Facebook in 2014, and Acton left the company three years later due to differences around the use of customer data and targeted advertising.

A year later, Acton contributed $50 million to launch a non-profit, the Signal Foundation and a subsidiary, Signal Messenger, LLC.

On 21 February 2018, Moxie Marlinspike and WhatsApp co-founder Brian Acton announced the formation of the Signal Technology Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization whose mission is “to support, accelerate, and broaden Signal’s mission of making private communication accessible and ubiquitous”. – Wikipedia

When the Electronic Frontier Foundation ranked messaging apps for privacy and transparency, Signal was one of the few that received a perfect score. The nonprofit also has an updated guide to using Signal, navigating its settings, etc.

The protection of data and personal privacy is important. The nonprofit Signal Foundation is led by Meredith Whittaker, a former director of the AI Now Institute at NYU, which examined the social impacts of AI and concentration of power in tech. She is a strong proponent of protecting privacy as a human right and an opponent of surveillance capitalism. Signal’s predecessor, Open Whisper Systems received funding from journalism nonprofit Freedom of the Press Foundation.

Signal has been recommended to Democratic Party staffers and officially approved by the US Senate in 2017. Just not for texting top secret plans, obviously!

Action plan for migrating from WhatsApp

It’s easy to see how we all get drawn into using specific apps like WhatsApp – the user base reaches a critical size and it becomes the app to find everyone on. At the same time, the company becomes more lucrative (and in many cases is taken over by a bigger fish) and then ethical issues creep in. We learn to suppress our concerns because the app is just too convenient and, to quote The Cranberries, Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can’t We? (R.I.P., Dolores).

The exit plan from WhatsApp is quite simple. Start by installing Signal and setting it up – it takes only a couple of minutes. Then, resume any WhatsApp conversations on Signal if that person is already a Signal user. If they are not, then switch to regular text messaging and gently suggest to that person to switch over to Signal. [Shout out to CeCe for reminding me to install Signal!] Group chats are a good way to get people to switch over as nobody will want to be the person who can’t be bothered making the switch.

The interference with elections is not OK.

I’ll leave the last word to future president, AOC:

Meta as in ‘we are a cancer to democracy metastasizing into a global surveillance and propaganda machine for boosting authoritarian regimes and destroying civil society… for profit!'” – Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez