Haven’t you heard? Everything causes autism now! Drank pineapple juice? Believe it or not, autism. Couldn’t get two Lego pieces apart as a child? Straight to autism.

Yeah, I fucked up, but I think it’s better to be transparent.

As I said, I was mistaking Signal for Telegram, who had made a big deal about how their platform is used by people who were fighting for their freedom in the same breath that they said they would kowtow to any legal subpoena.

you no longer need a phone number to sign up

My comment may have been a mistaken identity with Telegram, but you only have to download Signal to see that it still requires a phone number.

you no longer need a phone number to sign up

My comment may have been a mistaken identity with Telegram, but you only have to download the app to see that this isn’t true.

Edit: What the fuck is wrong with me? I was thinking of Telegram.

Three words borne of cynicism. Everyone here is focusing on exactly three words as opposed to the point of my message. Signal logs phone numbers required on sign-up and associates them with user accounts. A “legal” warrant can easily acquire this information and potentially nullify any anonymization Signal provides. Signal doesn’t have to require or retain this potentially identifiable information, but they do anyway.

Edit: What the fuck is wrong with me? I was thinking of Telegram.

So, speculation on the speculative part of my message as opposed to commentary about the actual point, huh? Cool, cool.

Edit: What the fuck is wrong with me? I was thinking of Telegram.

So, speculation on the speculative part of my message as opposed to commentary about the actual point, huh? Cool, cool.

Edit: What the fuck is wrong with me? I was thinking of Telegram. 😭

I’ve gotten into an argument about this before, and people down voted me to hell, but I’ll happily say it again: SIGNAL IS NOT SECURE. They require identifiable information on sign-up, log it permanently, and they will and do happily provide it upon police request. Even if they don’t provide direct access to your conversations, should a corrupt government get ahold of them, they are only one or two steps from putting your name on them.

Edit: Predicable response. Love how no one has commented on the actual point of my response yet. You know, the part where they collect, permanently log and willingly disseminate personal phone numbers? Something that can often be used to de-anonymize chat logs? The part that’s actually a big fucking deal.

Edit 2: Removing the cynical speculation (literally three words) because you people can’t seem to focus on anything else. This is about them provably logging and providing personal phone numbers, which can then be associated with both chats and identities.

An unlocked pixel 8 pro is almost a thousand dollars.