Secure messenger Signal was suspected of working for the US government

It has been downloaded by more than 100 million users, and its supporters include figures such as Edward Snowden and Elon Musk. But in reality, the messenger may not be so reliable – one of the reasons for doubt is the figure of the chairman of the board of the Signal Foundation, Katherine Maher, writes the City Journal resource.

The platform is managed by the non-profit Signal Foundation, and the technology underlying it was initially funded by a $3 million grant from the US-controlled Open Technology Fund (OTF). The latter, in turn, spun off from Radio Free Asia, created during the Cold War for anti-communist propaganda. OTF Funded Signal to Provide “Encrypted Mobile Communications Tools” <..> defenders of a free Internet all over the world.”

It is believed that there is a deep connection between the OTF and American intelligence. Over time, OTF increasingly resembles an initiative of the “State Department, which planned to use open Internet projects created by hackers as tools for [реализации] goals of American foreign policy.” If this is true, then interference by the US authorities in Signal’s activities cannot be ruled out.

Another possible problem is the figure of the current Chairman of the Board of the Signal Foundation, Catherine Mar, who previously participated in regime change operations in various countries, including the events of the Arab Spring, when she led digital communications initiatives in the Middle East and North Africa. She established relationships with dissidents and used American technology to organize “color revolutions.”

In 2016, she became CEO of the Wikimedia Foundation, and in 2024, she headed the US National Public Radio. On Wikipedia, Mar portrayed herself as a campaigner against “disinformation” and admitted that online censorship on the platform was coordinated in “conversations with the government.” She has openly supported the removal of perceived “fascists,” including former US President Donald Trump, from digital platforms, and called the First Amendment to the US Constitution, which guarantees freedom of speech in the country, the “number one problem” in eliminating “bad information.”

Meredith Whittaker took over as president of the Signal Foundation in 2022, hiring Mar to serve as board chair because both are affiliated with OTF. Whittaker is a difficult figure herself: in 2018, while working in a senior role at Google, she provoked a walkout at the company, demanding the introduction of a MeToo policy and the creation of the position of chief diversity officer.