US Vice President Turns Signal Group Chats into War Rooms: The Privacy App's Hidden Story

By Liam Huang

Translated and Edited by Carine.W

The world is an enormous amateur production, and we now have new evidence (or rather, new material for jokes).

We've all gotten used to creating 'group chats' on various social platforms to discuss work, life, and gossip, but have you ever imagined that those American officials controlling the world's strongest military power are essentially turning group chats into a makeshift office in another form?

Recently, Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic magazine, revealed a tragicomic story: he was "mistakenly added" to a Signal group chat named "Houthi PC," where he witnessed Vice President Vance and others "mocking" Europeans, and saw high-ranking officials discussing details of military strikes against Yemen's Houthi militants two hours before the actual U.S. military operation.

This veteran journalist was initially deeply skeptical, unable to believe that U.S. national security officials would discuss such confidential military operations on a commercial instant messaging app, let alone that the President's National Security Advisor would be so "reckless" as to add a media editor-in-chief to such discussions.

However, when he saw Secretary of Defense Heggseth revealing detailed operational information in the group about actions that would occur two hours later, including strike targets, weapon deployments, and attack sequences—operations that subsequently did take place—he had to accept this absurd reality.

As the incident was exposed, Vice President Vance, Secretary of Defense Heggseth, Secretary of State Rubio, CIA Director Ratcliffe, and other high-ranking U.S. officials became objects of collective mockery, with the emojis they used in the group—👊🇺🇸🔥—becoming internet memes.

This incident perfectly illustrates the so-called "amateur troupe theory"—that power structures which appear orderly and authoritative to outsiders may internally be more chaotic and improvisational than we imagine. The world's most powerful government apparently also conducts business through online group chats, and even makes basic mistakes like "adding the wrong person."

Looking at the chat software they used, Signal, it's both unexpected and somewhat logical.

This isn't the first time Signal has "blown up."

Even before becoming an accidental "witness platform" for U.S. military operations, this instant messaging software had gained widespread recognition in the tech community and among privacy advocates for its excellent privacy protection capabilities. Notable figures like Tesla CEO Elon Musk and "PRISM gate" whistleblower Edward Snowden have publicly endorsed Signal.

In early 2021, when WhatsApp announced updates to its privacy policy, Musk simply posted "Use Signal" on Twitter, after which Signal's downloads surged, temporarily causing its verification system to crash.

Edward Snowden, who is regarded as a representative figure of privacy protection advocates, said as early as 2015: "I use Signal every day." He considers Signal to be one of the most secure communication tools currently available on the market.

This incident has also brought significant exposure to Signal, with its Android store downloads surpassing WhatsApp and others, briefly ranking first. Signal's official X account posted: "Sometimes saying 'thank you' in just one way isn't enough, so merci, danke and bedankt" (Note: expressions of "thank you" in other languages).

Signal's core advantage lies in its advanced end-to-end encryption technology, where all communication content (including text, voice, video, and emojis) can only be decoded by the sender and recipient. Even if communications are intercepted, eavesdroppers can only see meaningless strings of characters.

This encryption mechanism is so robust that even Signal itself cannot read users' communication content. It also doesn't collect metadata, doesn't save call records, and doesn't perform cloud backups, fundamentally eliminating the possibility of data leaks.

It is precisely this nearly "impenetrable fortress" level of privacy protection that has made Signal the tool of choice for various individuals around the world who need confidential communications.

From journalists, human rights activists to political dissidents, many people in sensitive positions rely on Signal to protect their communications security. Latin American activists helping women seek abortion rights, North Korean defectors evading spies, lawyers from national bar associations, "Black Lives Matter" leadership groups, and formerly the terrorist organization ISIS—now Signal has a new user group: high-ranking officials in the Trump administration.

When the U.S. government and its enemies are all "working online" on the same communication platform, there is truly a cyberpunk-style sense of absurdity: those who wield enormous power are using a tool created by an anarchist to exercise their power.

This anarchist's name is Moxie Marlinspike.

The Most Interesting Person in the World

Signal founder Moxie Marlinspike is a legendary and mysterious figure in the tech world. This cryptography genius, whose real name is Matthew Rosenfeld, not only created the world's most secure communication software but also lives an incredibly adventurous life, described by Snowden as "one of the most interesting people on Earth."

Marlinspike grew up in central Georgia, showing early dissatisfaction with conventional education alongside a natural talent for technology. He despised the tedious tasks in school that stifled curiosity, yet discovered the joy of programming on a primitive computer in the school library that had no hard drive and couldn't even save code.

Before turning ten, he discovered the classic hacker magazine "2600" in a local bookstore, beginning his journey into hacking. After his mother bought him an inexpensive desktop computer, young Marlinspike was already able to "ambush" his friends' computers, making messages suddenly appear on their screens to startle them.

In 1999, carrying dreams of the cyberpunk world, Marlinspike moved to Silicon Valley after high school graduation, only to find "office parks and highways" that were far removed from the future world depicted in William Gibson's novels.

He quickly found programming work at Web-Logic, but shortly after entering the tech industry, he grew tired of "spending 40 hours a week in front of a keyboard." In the following years, Marlinspike lived an almost punk lifestyle in the San Francisco Bay Area—from squatting in abandoned buildings, to moving into an old post office warehouse, participating in political protests, and reading works by anarchist theorists like Emma Goldman. These experiences during this period profoundly shaped his critical thinking about authority.

These experiences during this period profoundly shaped his critical thinking about authority.

Not content with an ordinary life, Marlinspike's life has been filled with incredible adventures.

He once rode a bicycle across San Francisco carrying a 12-meter sailboat mast; taught himself to fly hot air balloons, only to crash in the desert, resulting in him using crutches for a month; and friends have witnessed his miraculous ability to never lose at rock-paper-scissors despite betting hundreds of dollars.

In 2003, he decided to learn sailing, spent all his savings to purchase a dilapidated 27-foot Catalina sailboat, and then set off alone from San Francisco port to Mexico, teaching himself through trial and error along the way.

The following year, he filmed the DIY sailing documentary "Hold Fast," chronicling the adventure of him and three friends sailing a leaking vessel nicknamed "The Plague" from Florida to the Bahamas, ultimately abandoning ship and escaping in the Dominican Republic.

Perhaps it was this pursuit of freedom and questioning of authority that guided Marlinspike to create Signal.

In 2010, he launched TextSecure (Signal's predecessor), beginning his revolutionary work in encrypted communications. In 2015, when Snowden first met Marlinspike in Moscow, he described the cryptographer as "incredibly interesting, awesome, super fun, and wild."

Marlinspike has always maintained a high regard for personal privacy, rarely discussing his personal life, including his age, hometown, or even his real name. This dedication to privacy is also reflected in Signal—a communication tool that doesn't collect user data, doesn't store communication records, and offers complete end-to-end encryption.

Unlike many tech founders, Marlinspike does not pursue commercial success. The Signal Foundation operates as a non-profit organization, mainly sustained by donations, including an initial $50 million donation from WhatsApp co-founder Brian Acton.

Signal's Encounter with Crypto, FTX Loses Hundreds of Millions of Dollars

As a staunch anarchist and privacy advocate, Moxie Marlinspike has also had intersections with cryptocurrencies.

The decentralized, censorship-resistant, and privacy-protecting characteristics of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin align philosophically with Marlinspike's original intention in creating Signal—to provide people with a communication tool free from government or corporate surveillance. Both originate from the cypherpunk movement, pursuing the protection of individual freedom and privacy through cryptographic technology.

In April 2021, Signal's mobile app announced the integration of the privacy payment project MobileCoin, supporting payments using MobileCoin. Following this announcement, the MOB token experienced a continuous surge, with a 6x increase over 14 days and an 8x increase over 30 days.

The reason behind this dramatic rise was later revealed: an FTX customer conducted large leveraged trades on MobileCoin (MOB), driving the price from $6 to a peak of nearly $70, and using these substantial positions as collateral for loans.

However, MOB's price quickly retreated to pre-surge levels, prompting market maker Alameda—also owned by FTX founder SBF—to intervene to protect FTX's liquidity, resulting in Alameda suffering hundreds of millions of dollars in losses.

The integration of MobileCoin also sparked significant controversy for Signal. Reports indicated that Marlinspike had served as a technical advisor to MobileCoin and potentially held a large stake in the token. This led some users to question whether Signal was deviating from its non-profit origins toward a more commercialized path.

Marlinspike responded that Signal chose MobileCoin because it offered the best privacy protection and user experience, rather than for personal interest considerations.

Despite his numerous connections to cryptocurrencies, Marlinspike is simultaneously a critic of cryptocurrencies.

In early 2022, he published a widely circulated article on his personal blog titled "My first impressions of web3," questioning the decentralization promises of Web3 and blockchain technology.

He pointed out that although blockchain protocols themselves are decentralized, the ways users access these protocols are often highly centralized, such as relying on wallets like MetaMask and infrastructure services like Infura.

Moxie Marlinspike also conducted an experiment: he listed an NFT that would change its appearance depending on where you viewed it. When browsing on OpenSea or Rarible, it looked like artwork; but when viewed from a wallet after purchase, it was a poop emoji!

Subsequently, this NFT was delisted from OpenSea for unclear reasons. What made him even more dismayed was that after the NFT was delisted, the NFT in his wallet (self-minted and self-purchased) actually disappeared!

Moxie Marlinspike believes that truly decentralized systems should be "systems in which people can participate directly, without requiring permission or mediation from any third party."

Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin also quickly responded to this article on Reddit: he largely agreed with Marlinspike's arguments, considering them fair criticism of the current situation, but he also mentioned that there are now many developers and researchers who want to use cryptography to make the entire ecosystem better and realize the concept of decentralization.

The reason for the current tendency toward centralization is because it is indeed a simpler and faster method, while the slower pace of decentralized development is due to insufficient technical resources and funding. They have also encountered quite a few technical challenges along the way, but most of the major challenges have now been addressed one by one, so Vitalik remains optimistic about future developments.

Although he maintains certain criticisms of cryptocurrencies, the story of Signal and the cryptocurrency world continues to intertwine, with both sharing a mission to protect user privacy and resist centralized control.

In this era of constant tension between encryption and decryption, privacy and surveillance, Signal has become a unique entity—it is both a symbol of resistance and a tool of power; both a fortress of privacy and a stage for unexpected leaks.

The Signal vessel carries passengers of all kinds, from government officials to anarchists, from cryptocurrency enthusiasts to ordinary users, sailing toward an increasingly chaotic future.