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Notice how the piece you linked ties together facts in a way that implies an otherwise unsupported narrative: Signal received funding from .gov (true), that funding expired after some period (true), Signal is currently struggling financially (true). Missing is information such as: How much of Signal’s funding came from .gov? (Not mentioned.) When did the funding end? (Asked but not answered.) Any indication of causal link between loss of .gov funding and current financial trouble? (None mentioned.) Yet the clear implication is that Signal was created as a CIA psyop, and was only ever successful due to sinister government connections.
It’s a great story for someone who makes a living implying the CIA is behind everything. (Previous stories on his Substack: “Third 9/11 Hijacker May Have Been CIA Recruit,” “How CIA and NSA Created Google,” “RIP BuzzFeed News, Intelligence Agency Propaganda Conduit”)
But that’s rather ad hominem of me. So don’t just believe me—analyze the details of the story for yourself, and form a conclusion.
> Among the resources developed under “Internet Freedom” were State Department-funded “stealth wireless networks,” enabling anti-regime activists “to communicate outside the reach of governments in countries like Iran, Syria and Libya.”
> A now-deleted entry on OTF’s website amply demonstrates Signal’s conception was precisely concerned with furthering this “agenda”. It notes the app was designed to counter “restrictive internet filtering by technical methods” and “repressive surveillance or monitoring of communication.”
> In other words, Signal gifted the CIA “well over a billion” potential insurrectionists, by providing them with a means to organize their activities away from the prying eyes of local authorities.