How relatable. He who hasn't ever accidentally shared classified information about military strikes with a random journalist using a commercial chat app on a private phone, let him first cast a stone at them.
this post was submitted on 27 Mar 2025
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I mean, I haven't, but that's because I don't play Warthunder.
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Rork
(Signal isn't a commercial app. It's free as in freedom, free as in beer, and free as in "there's no data kept on you to possibly sell". The Signal Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit, and the Signal app's development and running costs are funded through the Signal Foundation. Please stop using this "commercial app" line.)
That's still commercial. You looked all that up and neglected the definition of commercial and commerce. Non-profits can be commercial and they also might not be, this one however is actually involved in commerce.
You looked all that up and neglected the definition of commercial and commerce.
No I didn't, but I knew someone with no idea what they're talking about would insist otherwise without a shred of evidence. Commerce is the voluntary exchange of products and services. If I give you a pig for a goat, we've engaged in commerce. If I give you a toothpick for two dollars, we've engaged in commerce. If I give you some data for money, we've engaged in commerce. If I paint your house so that you redo my shower, we've engaged in commerce.
this one however is actually involved in commerce
Cool story. How?
- The Signal app is free. It's free to be compiled on its own. It's free to be downloaded from the Play Store or the App Store. It's free to be downloaded from their website. It's free to be reused and redistributed and modified by anybody for any purpose at any time. At no point is Signal ever given anything of any tangible value by anybody for a download.
- The Signal app is free to use. No feature of the Signal app is gatekept in a way that would allow you to pay Signal anything of any value to use it.
- Signal's servers are free to use, and it can be self-hosted.
- Signal does not collect any metadata on you in a way that could be worth anything to any commercial interest.
- Signal does not contain advertisements within its application or on its website.
- As the Signal Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit, we can look at its form 990. Part VIII (page 9) breaks down income. 10.12 million was made in licensing fees, 0.14 million made in service revenue (keeping in mind that this can be any service, and it's transparently obvious that Signal doesn't make service revenue; past press releases have indicated that the Signal Foundation helps companies like MS incorporate the Signal Protocol into their messengers, which is likely where this comes from), and 8.4 million gross on selling securities. (I imagine the licensing fees are giving big corps like MS, Facebook, and Google the rights to say they use the Signal Protocol, which while an open standard is likely trademarked by the Signal Foundation. That doesn't make Signal a "commercial app".)
Please enlighten me how this constitutes commerce, because you haven't actually said anything other than "yuh huh". The Signal Foundation engages in commerce, but to say that the protocol or app or service is a commercial product is nonsense that not only has zero evidence but is disprovable.
This article goes to great lengths to make it appear as if something hugely important really isn’t that big a deal. No, it’s not “relatable”. No, it isn’t “something we’ve all done”. This is treason.
They broke countless laws, protocols, and regulations that were put in place for good reason, by people who were clearly much more careful and intelligent than them. Still, even these stupid, arrogant assholes should have known better.
I will never read this MAGA apologist garbage again.
Except my chats are not subject to public records act laws for oversight and public information, so if I choose to keep them off record it's not illegal.
It's nothing, just a little bit of light treason.
What the fuck headline is that. No, we haven't done that, because we're careful about that shit.
This is such a BS.
I actually feel like this wasn't an accident and he invited him on purpose to expose this scandal as his position is a National Security Advisor and what they are doing is outrageous from security standpoint.
All media concentrated on that a journalist was present in the chat, when the real issue is them using Signal on personal phones to communicate sensitive information.
...we've all violated national security oaths and SCIF protocol?..yeah, no...
umm, no. I use work chats for work, and personal chats for personal. I might accidentally add the wrong colleague to a work chat, or wrong friend to a personal chat, but I'm never going to accidentally add a friend to a work chat because I don't mix work and personal chats.
Trying to fucking normalize this, complicit media bitch. What a shit article.
We have not all done this. We are not all breaking the law and trying to hide our government actions in a group chat.
I have definitely never sent a text or Signal message to the wrong person or group as well. It's actually not hard to simply look at the recipient(s) before you compose a message. You even have the opportunity to double-check the message recipient(s) before you hit Send.
I'm gonna be an age-bigot for a moment and say this is mostly a problem for Boomers and Zoomers.
Way to normalize a massive failure of leadership and criminal act, USA Today.
!That’s why the Trump administration’s Signalgate blunder was all anyone could talk about on news shows and social media, in workplaces, even in schools, said New York University psychology professor Tessa West.
Even West’s 11-year-old son came home from school Monday and confessed that he, too, had once added the wrong person to a group chat. “Mommy I did that, I did exactly what those Trump people did,” he told her.
“For 11-year-old boys, this is the most relatable thing that the Trump administration has done, which just shows you just how ubiquitous this experience is from Slack channels to group chats,” West said. “We’ve all done this.”!<
What a trash article. It reads like propaganda. This kind of reporting is frustrating. Framing a serious security breach—like the Trump administration's Signal group chat blunder—as relatable because “even an 11-year-old has done it” feels disingenuous at best. Using a child’s anecdote to soften the impact of a significant government mistake trivializes the issue and distracts from the consequences of the breach.
We’re not talking about accidentally texting the wrong person in a school group chat. We’re talking about high-level officials mistakenly including someone in a discussion tied to sensitive military operations. That’s not “relatable”—that’s a failure in operational security, and it deserves scrutiny, not spin.
We're also talking about high-level people illegally using a non-qualified app to avoid federal record keeping laws.
uh no i've never accidentally added a journalist to a group chat while laughing about bombing people in the middle east.
You gotta admit, though, that 11-year-old boy might make a good Secretary of Defense after this one.
I can’t think of a time when I added the wrong person to a group chat. I’m sure it’s happened, but probably not in the past 10-15 years.
And my online chats are pretty low-stakes, so it’s not like I’m trying very hard.
I'm not the first guy who fell in love with a girl he met in a restaurant...
who then turned out to be the daughter of a kidnapped scientist...
only to lose her to her childhood lover...
who she'd last seen on a deserted island...
and who turned out, 15 years later, to be the leader of the French underground.
"Skeet Surfing" is my jam.
One of Mel Tormé's best songs.
signalgate blunder
Can we fucking not add “-gate” to the end of everything that happens? It’s so overused that it diminishes the importance of actually-dangerous events like this one.
It all started with that Watergategate scandal.