Recently, after WhatsApp threatened to change its privacy policy, people were nuged to the alternate Signal messenger app. However, serious discussion of Signal’s history, and funding sources, has been entirely absent from the puff pieces by media. This investigation reveals how CIA created the Signal app, funded by the US government to protect communications of its agents deployed for regime change.
Open Whisper Systems
Signal was launched by now-defunct Open Whisper Systems (OWS) in 2013, brainchild of shadowy tech guru ‘Moxie Marlinspike’ – real name Matthew Rosenfeld.
In February 2018, responsibility for managing the app passed to the nonprofit Signal Foundation, launched with $50 million in startup capital provided by billionaire former Facebook higher-up Brian Acton, the Foundation’s executive chair.
OWS never published financial statements or disclosed the identities of its funders at any point during its operation, although the sums involved in launching and maintaining a messaging platform used by a vast number of people internationally over several years were surely significant.
Open Technology Fund
Rosenfeld alleges the app “never [took] VC funding or sought investment” at any point during that time, and quite how much money was involved in total is a...
