Latest news with #Signal-gate
Time Magazine
3 days ago
- Politics
- Time Magazine
How Signal President Meredith Whittaker Took on Signal-Gate
Meredith Whittaker remembers exactly where she was when she read the story that would spark the first major crisis of the second Trump Administration—the debacle that became known as Signal-gate. The president of encrypted messaging app Signal was sitting at her kitchen table in Paris, when somebody in one of her Signal group chats sent her a link to the March 24 article. Whittaker read, slack-jawed, about how President Trump's then-national security advisor Mike Waltz had added the editor of the Atlantic magazine, apparently accidentally, to a Signal group chat where senior officials discussed forthcoming military strikes on Houthi rebels in Yemen. She finished the story and shared it with her colleagues. 'And then I went back and I read it again, because I was like, What the f-ck,' Whittaker tells TIME. 'It had all the elements of a soap opera.' A month later, the New York Times reported U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had used a separate Signal chat to share similar details about military strikes. Read More: Meredith Whittaker is on the 2023 TIME100 AI Whittaker's main concern, in the aftermath, was protecting the image of Signal. The messaging app, as the story demonstrated, has become commonly used by government officials around the world, as well as journalists, human rights defenders, and regular people seeking privacy. Signal doesn't share user numbers, but estimates put them at around 70 million. The app's encryption is widely seen as the best in the industry—the surest guarantee that messages can only be read by their sender and the intended recipients. Whittaker's team was keen to stress, in background calls with journalists, that Waltz's security breach was a user error, and the security of Signal itself wasn't in dispute. 'How do we make sure, however this story moves, that the integrity of Signal itself is not speciously called into question?' Whittaker recalls asking her colleagues. Her team's goal, she says, was to make sure the crisis roiling the Trump Administration did 'not become something that endangers the fundamental right to private communication that Signal exists to ensure.' In the end, Signal emerged from the episode even stronger. (Waltz, not so much—Trump demoted him several weeks later.) The app saw a large spike in downloads in the immediate aftermath, a sign users were confident in its security. It also saw an uptick in donations. (30% of its running costs are now covered by small donors, with the rest coming mainly from foundations and large donors, a spokesperson says.) The app, run by a non-profit, consciously rejects the surveillance business model that drives most of the tech industry. 'We believe that the right to privacy should be universal, and the ability to communicate privately, even in this world, should persist, and we are building what I believe is the most important technical infrastructure in the world to enable the right to privacy,' Whittaker says. TIME spoke with Whittaker on May 20. This conversation has been edited for length and clarity. The world has been pretty chaotic for a while now, but it feels like in the last couple of years it has only sharpened. How important is Signal in this current moment? People want privacy. People are creeped out. People are uneasy. People recognize that the status quo in tech is not safe or savory, and for whatever reason they are trying to find, and in the case of Signal are finding, alternatives that actually give them meaningful privacy. Anyone who does human rights work or investigative journalism understands that in many cases, it is the difference between life and death. We know throughout history that centralized power constitutes such power via information asymmetry. The more they know, the more stable and lasting their power is. This is the type of domination through knowledge that makes or breaks empires. Ultimately, we are in a world in which the power to know us has been ceded to the tech industry. So ensuring [privacy] in a world where the authority to know us has been ceded to private actors who may or may not cooperate with one or another regime, who may choose to use that data to manipulate or to harm us or to exclude us from access to resources, is existentially important. This is the basis on which I claim, without flinching, that Signal is the most important technical infrastructure in the world right now. Where were you when you first read the Atlantic story? I was at my kitchen table, which, although I have a desk, is usually where I work. We have many, many Signal chats with folks who think and care about issues of privacy, and somebody in one of those dropped that story in the chat, and I opened it, and I read it, and then I put it in our team chat, where our core team shares information. And then I went back and I read it again, because I was like, What the f-ck. It had all the elements of a soap opera. And we are living in soap operatic times, so I had to go back and make sure I was not just deficient on caffeine or not clocking exactly what had happened. And I reread it, and I was like, okay, damn. This is a mess. But I think the full implications didn't hit me. Like, the bombs had fallen. People were dead. This was a real military operation that had been executed and operationalized the same way as my friends and I meeting in Prospect Park for a frisbee. But the consequences ricocheted. I did not at the time anticipate that Signal would become such a main character in the story. You must have known, long before that, that Signal was commonly used by government officials, right? We know because people tell us. So it was an article of faith. I didn't know specifically who and where and how it was used. And that's by design. You could come to my dining room table and put a gun to my head and say, give me that data. And literally, I could not give you that data, because we have gone to such extremes to ensure that we also don't know. Have you had any meetings with Trump Administration officials since that point? If so, what did you talk about? No, we don't work directly with governments as a rule. Many governments are trying to attack encryption—to get companies to build in back doors to their systems. But at the same time, many of them are using the technology themselves. Do you see an irony there? I do see an irony. It's a very long standing irony. It's an irony that is sort of based on a magical thinking, as we've called it, where there is a desire to have for me, but not for thee, which is fundamentally not possible when it comes to encryption. Either it works for everyone, the person you hate the most in the world, the person you love the most in the world, Both need to have access, or it doesn't work, or we live in a world where communications privacy is not possible, where we cannot express ourselves, our intimacies, our doubts, our excoriation of corruption without those expressions being surveilled and potentially weaponized against us.
Yahoo
13-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Signalgate changed Pete Hegseth — texting scandal made him angrier, paranoid and paralyzed by fear: report
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has become more paranoid, fearful and angry in the wake of the so-called 'Signal-gate' scandal that saw the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic included on a chat platform conversation with top national security officials as a drone strike was underway against Houthi rebels in Yemen, a new report reveals. Six people told New York magazine that Hegseth was noticeably changed by the ordeal. They said he seemed angrier, did not bother to shave as often and seemed afraid to make the wrong decision after Signal-gate. One source said that the Pentagon seemed to stop being 'creative.' Another source said the scandal was 'consuming his whole life' at a time 'when he should have been focused on, you know, our national security.' Hegseth also began to regularly have his personal lawyer, Tim Parlatore, and his wife, Jennifer, around, which confused foreign officials. In addition, other news outlets reported that Hegseth had a second group chat going with Parlatore, his wife and his brother and had set up an unsecured internet line in his office. Word of the embarrassing potential breach of national security broke in March, when then-National Security Advisor Michael Waltz added Jeffrey Goldberg, The Atlantic's editor-in-chief, onto a text chain on the messaging app Signal where the Trump administration's national security team discussed striking Houthi targets in Yemen. The scandal immediately put Hegseth--who faced a narrow confirmation in the Senate earlier this year due to his views on women in the military, reports of drinking on the job and allegations of sexual misconduct that he vehemently denied--under heavy scrutiny. In response, Hegseth assailed Goldberg. 'You're talking about a deceitful and highly discredited so-called journalist who's made a profession of peddling hoaxes time and time again to include the hoaxes of Russia, Russia, Russia,' he said at the time. He said that nobody texted war plans. That led to Goldberg publishing screenshots of the full text messages, which showed that the administration officials had indeed been texting what looked like war plans. Earlier this week, Hegseth appeared on Capitol Hill to answer questions about Trump's deployment of Marines to quell anti-ICE riots and demonstrations in Los Angeles. He also faced aggressive questioning about the US having contingency plans to invade Greenland and Panama. The magazine profiled Hegseth's distress after NBC News reported the story about the plans to 'reclaim' Panama and he told his chief of staff Joseph Kasper that he wanted an investigation. The Pentagon further plunged into disarray when the press reported that the Pentagon had ordered a second carrier into the Red Sea. Hegseth defended the fact that sending troops to Los Angeles cost $134 million. The magazine profile went into deeper detail about the dismissal of Hegseth's allies in the Pentagon, including his advisers Dan Caldwell, Darin Selnick and Colin Carroll. Kasper, Hegseth's chief of staff, believed that Colin tried to get Kasper fired through a report by the Pentagon's inspector general about Kasper's alleged drug use. 'That's what pisses me off the most,' Carroll said. 'I don't want a secretary of defense that can't even f***ing fire people properly and not have it rebound back on his ass. Pete can't even be a good villain.' Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell denied claims of disarray under Hegseth's tenure. 'Claims of chaos at the Pentagon under Secretary Hegseth are false,' he said. 'When members of the legacy media lie, they disrespect the brave servicemembers and civilians who selflessly serve our country.' At the moment, Hegseth no longer has a chief of staff or deputy chief of staff.
Yahoo
11-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Iowa Senator Zach Wahls running for Joni Ernst's U.S. Senate seat
DES MOINES, Iowa — The Democratic field for a challenger to incumbent Senator Joni Ernst (R) is growing. Iowa State Senator Zach Wahls announced his run for the seat on Wednesday morning. Wahls, from Coralville, has been serving District 43 since 2019. He tells WHO 13 News why he is now deciding to hop into the race. 'I'm running because Iowans are working hard but aren't getting ahead. And I want to do something to help solve the problems that hardworking Iowans are facing. I've got a track record of standing up to leaders of both parties when they are not delivering for us. And that's exactly what I'll do in Washington. My wife and I started talking about it seriously this spring when we were watching everything that was happening in D.C.,' said Senator Wahls, (D) District 43 from Coralville. 'ICE Out' protest brings in hundreds in Des Moines Democrat Nathan Sage from Knoxville announced his bid for the office earlier in the year. Along with State Representative J.D. Scholten, from Sioux City. Wahls tells WHO 13 News that he isn't focusing on his Democratic opponents in this primary race, instead focusing on the incumbent. 'The fact that Senator Ernst didn't have the courage of her convictions to stand against the nomination of Pete Hegseth when she clearly had concerns that were valid, as we all found out when the Signal-gate story broke. And I think that unfortunately, Sen. Ernst has lost her way,' said Wahls. 'We deserve a senator who isn't going to glibly joke that we are all going to die, I mean we all know we are going to die, that's a part of life. It's not supposed to be our senators who are the ones killing us. We need someone who's going to fight back for these benefits that so many Iowans count on.' Wahls told WHO 13 News that he is eager to get out and campaign in all 99 Iowa counties and meet voters. Wahls is a 6th-generation Iowan who is eager to run on lowering costs, protecting health care and abortion rights, and providing affordable child care to Iowa's families. Iowa Senator Zach Wahls running for Joni Ernst's U.S. Senate seat Hot, muggy Wednesday and storm chances Iowa HHS reports second case of measles in state this year Increase in ATV/UTV popularity brings more crashes on roads Dozens of dogs rescued from 'neglectful conditions' at eastern Iowa breeder nearly 2 years after first rescue Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Verge
08-05-2025
- Business
- The Verge
New surgeon general nominee cofounded 'biowearables' startup with DOGE operative
Before she was chosen as Donald Trump's latest nominee for Surgeon General, Dr. Casey Means came from the world of healthcare startups – and cofounded one with a tech entrepreneur who's now a key DOGE operative in charge of dismantling the IRS. In 2019, Means, a holistic medicine doctor who rose to prominence in the Trump-adjacent MAHA movement, launched Levels, a biowearables and health-tracking company, with Sam Corcos, who's now leading efforts at DOGE to construct a 'mega API' that compiles American taxpayers' data. The company, whose first product was a blood glucose tracker connected to a $400-per-month subscription app, received tens of millions of dollars funding over the past several years – notably from Andreesen-Horowitz's venture capital arm a16z, which led its $12 million seed round and its Series A round. 'Both the health of our people and the fiscal solvency of our country are at stake,' Marc Andreesen, now a Trump advisor and a critical player in the rise of the tech right, said in a press release announcing its Series A extension back in August 2024. 'Levels is a case study of the application of technology to both.' Their affiliation is by no means hidden: Corcos and Means both describe themselves as cofounders and currently active employees of Levels on their LinkedIn pages, with Corcos listed as CEO. They also have a joint authors page on the Levels blog, frequently co-hosted a company podcast, are mentioned in press releases about the company, and often highlighted each others' works on their social media feeds. 'Super proud to share that Levels Co-founder, Casey Means, MD, along with her brother, Calley Means, sat down with Joe Rogan to talk about the importance of metabolic health,' Corcos posted on LinkedIn last October. 'It's amazing to see the impact they're having and how they've brought this pressing issue into the national discourse.' Means, now a close associate of HHS secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., was announced as Trump's nominee for Surgeon General after the president abruptly pulled his original pick, Dr. Janette Nesheiwat, the day before she was due to testify in front of the Senate. Dr. Nesheiwatt, a former Fox News contributor, also happens to be the sister-in-law of former National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, who had fallen out of favor with the White House for his role in Signal-gate. (Last week, Trump announced that he was reassigning Waltz to be his Ambassador to the United Nations, a role widely seen as punishment for adding a journalist to a classified group chat.) Corcos, who is also a special advisor to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, has become a public-facing figure in stories about DOGE, the quasi-governmental agency led by Elon Musk to drastically reduce the federal government's workforce. (Disclaimer: This reporter attended college with Corcos at Claremont McKenna College.) According to reports from Wired, behind the scenes, Corcos is in charge of efforts to consolidate all taxpayer data into one single database, a move that has alarmed security analysts and IRS engineers – both for the speed at which DOGE is doing it, and because a 'mega API' project would allow any singular entity, including private companies and foreign governments, to access and export said data.
Sky News
02-05-2025
- Politics
- Sky News
'You're fired! Why Trump waited until now to sack his national security adviser
👉 Follow Trump100 on your podcast app 👈 As Donald Trump makes the first major reshuffle of his top team - firing Mike Waltz as his national security adviser - our US correspondents Mark Stone and James Matthews ask why it took so long for the repercussions of Signal-gate to bite. And, will the minerals deal between Ukraine and the US bring an end to the war a step closer? If you've got a question you'd like the Trump100 team to answer, you can email it to trump100@ Don't forget, you can also watch all episodes on our YouTube channel.
