As Donald Trump's second term as US president begins, more and more government officials have begun using the encrypted messenger Signal, which is used both for personal communication and for making and discussing important decisions, such as planning a military strike on Yemen, The Washington Post reports.
Current and former U.S. government officials use Signal to discuss work-related matters, personnel changes, often related to the activities of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), and other matters. One secret chat, which included U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Vice President J.D. Vance, discussed a military strike on Yemen. The chat became famous because a journalist from The Atlantic was accidentally added to it.
Signal was previously used primarily in Silicon Valley and in areas where anonymity and security are important. Federal bureaucrats also used Messenger, but did not make it their primary channel for communication until Donald Trump took office. However, since his inauguration, Signal has become one of the main tools for government employees looking to protect their communications.
These changes are related to the desire of federal officials, employees and the public to avoid surveillance, but they also have a negative aspect. Lauren Harper, who leads initiatives to increase government transparency, noted that Americans will never have complete information and will not be able to fully understand the policies being implemented in their interests if communication takes place in secret and encrypted chat rooms.
Government employees’ use of private email accounts, personal cell phones, and unofficial technologies like Signal may violate requirements to retain and archive most government correspondence and internal communications for public transparency. Top-secret and national security materials are subject to even higher standards and must only be transmitted over the most secure government networks to minimize the likelihood of catastrophic data leaks or cyberattacks.
Hillary Clinton used private email servers while she was secretary of state. This later hindered her 2016 presidential campaign and prompted an FBI investigation. Now, the Secretary of Defense and the Vice President of the United States use Signal to discuss details of U.S. military planning. Messenger, like Clinton’s private servers, is not an approved platform for exchanging classified information. At the same time, Hegseth himself denies the authenticity of these messages and told reporters that no one wrote messages about military plans.
For most other U.S. government employees, Signal has become a place where they can more freely discuss current topics and Trump administration policies without worrying that their conversations might be perceived as disloyalty.
"I won’t communicate with my co-workers about anything on government platforms," said a State Department employee, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of fear of retaliation. "We are afraid we will be singled out and fired for participating in actions or rhetoric that is adverse to the administration."
Some federal employees also say they don’t use messengers like Signal for official business. Instead, they use similar services on their personal smartphones because the platforms allow them to communicate freely with family, the press, and colleagues without fear of being spied on. Encrypted messengers were also used when Musk began requiring civil servants to list five things they did in a week. Signal, in particular, became a place where federal employees debated whether to do so.
Some federal workers admit they don't quite understand what they're afraid of, but they feel the fear anyway. One NASA employee, who asked to remain anonymous, said that "it's exhausting, and I don't even know if I'm just paranoid." She also decided not to post personal photos of herself on social media because they could be seen as evidence of climate change. The Trump administration has reduced regulations and federal policies aimed at combating global warming.