How do I transition my friends from Instagram DMs to Signal as a Gen Z individual in the US?
I just don't see it happening. Shit I have a hard time getting them to use god damn Whatsapp or Telegram (still bad but at least better than Instagram).
They are all iPhone users in the US so as you may expect they are too damn lazy to install another messaging app despite having Instagram Snapchat Tiktok BeReal and whatever shitty social media app that exists on the App Store.
For the love of god don't just say "you need bettee friends" 😂 cause let's be honest finding a privacy conscious person that you also can get along with in the US as Gen Z is practically impossible.
CIA Funding CIA → RFA → OTF → Signal. While this article by Yasha Levine gets into the details, it is no secret that the original funder of Open Whisper Systems (the previous name for signal’s development team), was the Open Technology Fund: itself publicly listed as a subsidiary of Radio Free Asia, a US state-run organization whose main goal (along with the other “Radio Free” incarnations such as Radio Free Europe, or Free Cuba Radio) is regime change for those Asian governments who don’t align with the US’s foreign policy interests.
TOR was started and funded by the US Naval Research Labs ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ it's not perfect, but I know it's widely used as a first line of defense. I won't comment on the Radio Free Asia stuff because I have no knowledge of that, but I feel like there's a lot of privacy tools we use that were initially funded by the US government, and even the US military in some cases. It always comes back to relative threat levels. Are you trying to avoid invasive corporate monitoring and some degree of government surveillance as a regular person? Signal is fine. Are you actively trying to hide from government intelligence agencies? Maybe it's not so fine. Signal is still preferable to a messaging application owned by Meta, imo.
Holy heck, it almost seems like there is some counter-intel op against Signal going on here by the powers that be that doesn't want you to use it because of its encryption (see? even I can make conspiracy theories like this). Now let me copy-paste one of my earlier posts:
Governments routinely fund the development of secure and open communication systems because they themselves benefit from having such communication tools which can be trusted. By the logic presented in this "essay", one shouldn't be using the internet at all. What you need to check is whether Signal's technical claims about its encryption is true or not. There is nothing in this article that raises any question on Signal's encryption. We already know how much data Signal has on its users through their responses to various legal subpoenas over the years (spoiler: its pretty much nothing).
This is full on, unadulterated FUD. Practically the definition of it. Signal is tried, tested and legit. You are not doing anyone any favors by spreading such bullshit.
How stupid is this? The internet and Tor were also built in part by the US government. You not gunna use the internet because of that? Clearly you're here so that's not the case.
It might be, or not. For what's worth Signal might be the most secure and private solution out there, probably event safer than Matrix. I'm not going to stop using it because of that article but people should know about all sides of a story and decide for themselves.