Messaging App Signal Is Exposed for Being Launched With Government Money
Jose Nino
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According to a report published by Christopher Rufo, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, messaging app Signal was launched with government funds.
Signal boasts over 100 million users and is viewed as private and secure. Rufo’s report also revealed that Signal is led by National Public Radio’s (NPR) CEO, Katherine Maher. He published this report on May 13 about the alleged ties between the United States government, Maher and Signal.
The Daily Caller noted that Signal has received endorsements from notable figures, which includes National Security Agency (NSA) whistleblower Eric Snowden, Tesla and Space X founder Elon Musk and ex-Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey.
Rufo asserted that Signal’s technological foundation was initially funded “in part” by the government, Rufo claims. The technology allegedly received a $3 million grant doled out by government agency Open Technology Fund (OTF) from the timeframe of 2013 to 2016, per Voice of America (VOA).
The OTF is apparently a spin-off of a government-subsidized private news agency, Radio Free Asia. The technology fund asserts that it goal is to “advance internet freedom in repressive environments by supporting the research, development, implementation, and maintenance of technologies that counter censorship and combat repressive surveillance to enable all citizens to exercise their fundamental human rights online,” per its site.
OTF’s relationship with Signal apparently goes beyond the grant. An anonymous source who claims to have “worked extensively with OTF” allegedly told Rufo that, as time progressed, it appeared “the project was actually a State Department-connected initiative that planned to wield open source Internet projects made by hacker communities as tools for American foreign policy goals.” The program allegedly empowered “activists [and] parties opposed to governments that the USA doesn’t like,” Rufo noted in his report.
The current chairman of the board is Maher, per Rufo and Maher’s NPR bio. One of the NPR CEO’s digital communications jobs was working as an Information and Communication Technology (ICT) program officer at the National Democratic Institute. The Institute asserts it works “around the world to strengthen and safeguard democratic institutions, processes, norms and values to secure a better quality of life for all” by teaming up with American foreign policy ventures.
The foundation’s current president, Meredith Whittaker, reportedly recruited Maher for her position with Signal owing to their mutual ties to OTF. according to an anonymous insider who was in contact with Rufo.
Maher reportedly works as an advisor to OTF in addition to another non-profit organization, Access Now, which is concentrated on “digital rights of people and communities at risk,” per their site.
The fact of the matter is that Big Tech and the US’s state apparatus are attached at the hip. Such institutions work in a symbiotic manner to undermine foundational freedoms and the Historic American Nation.
They ultimately have to be suppressed if we want our civilization to remain intact.
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