Encrypted messaging app Signal continues to see growing downloads in the wake of the messaging scandal that saw The Atlantic’s Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg added to a group chat where high-ranking officials in the Trump administration were discussing an attack on Houthi rebels in Yemen.
The resulting press coverage around the leak of these sensitive plans has been making more people check out Signal’s app for the 1st time, leading to a doubling of its downloads.
Curious
According to app intelligence provider Appfigures, downloads rose by 26% on the day the news broke, an indication that users were curious about the app being used by members of the Trump administration. The next day, downloads jumped to 193,000 & by Wed. reached an all-time high of 195,000, the firm noted.
By comparison, Signal typically sees an average of 95,000 downloads per average day.
Appfigures
Appfigures has been tracking the impact of the scandal on Signal’s app from day one. It earlier found that Signal app downloads across iOS & Google Play had jumped up 28% on the Mon. when the news initially broke, with US downloads up by 45% & downloads in Yemen up by 42%. One can but imagine what conclusions to draw from the latter!
The Trump administration has dismissed the seriousness of the incident, where The Atlantic journalist was accidentally added to a group chat between officials.
Denied
Although Secretary of Defense Peter Hegseth, who was in the chat with VP J.D. Vance & others, denied that “war plans” were shared through the encrypted chat app, The Atlantic later published the complete message threads which showed officials discussing the time, location, & weapons the US would use in the attack. Trump has since taken to attacking the media for its continued coverage of the incident.
Signal’s app itself was not compromised to allow for this leak. Instead, the journalist was accidently added to the thread. National Security Adviser Michael Waltz has accepted responsibility for making the group chat in the 1st place but has deflected blame over the embarrassing mistake.
Good Press
Appfigures attributes the doubling of downloads to the old adage “all press is good press,” as the scandal increased Signal’s visibility likely introduced the app to 1000s of users for the 1st time.
20 Groups
In the last day further evidence has emerged that suggests that the US Secretary of Defense was a member of at least 20 different Signal groups covering a variety of wars & crises.
It has also been suggested that Pete Hegseth’s contribution to the much-maligned Signal thread appears to be a ‘cut & paste’ suggesting that it was posted elsewhere too.
‘Case Closed’
Despite a ‘Case Closed’ approach being adopted by the White House & US Depts. of Defence & Justice it seems certain that US Democrats will continue to press for proper full enquiries. The outrageous behaviour exhibited by some of the most senior officials in the Trump administration up to & including Vice-President JD Vance has been extremely revealing.
That none of the most senior level of US leadership down from President Trump felt at any point it was worth pointing out to the group that what they were engaging-in was a highly dangerous breach of cyber security & national security is extremely revealing & deeply disturbing.
Endangered
Some of the participants mused about whether they might switch to the ‘high-level’ secure systems later on to discuss more detail showing some level of awareness of the situation – which de facto could have endangered the US Navy F-18 pilots conducting the manned part of the Yemen mission from a US aircraft carrier in the Red Sea.
Despite all this the US news cycle appears to have now moved on because of the huge Trump Tariffs crisis & massive Stock Markets drops now dominating world headlines.
