WhatsApp might still be the most popular messaging app in the world, but users have slowly begun flocking to alternative solutions. This comes after WhatsApp’s parent company Facebook sent out a notification earlier this week, directing users to agree to the social networks’ renewed privacy policy or stop using the service.
Elon Musk tweets ‘Use Signal’ in an apparent attempt to discourage people from using WhatsApp, which has been asking users to agree to a new privacy policy. Encrypted messaging app Signal is seeing a wave of new users after Tesla CEO Elon Musk told his Twitter followers to use the service. The flood of sign-ups on Thursday briefly caused Signal to delay sending out the verification codes needed to activate new user accounts. Nevertheless, the nonprofit behind the app said it’s ecstatic about the surge in activity. Hours earlier, Musk tweeted to his followers “Use Signal” in an apparent attempt to discourage people from using WhatsApp, a rival messaging app owned by Facebook. The tweet arrived after WhatsApp announced a new privacy policy covering how it can share user data with Facebook. The practice is nothing new, but the policy update grabbed headlines over concerns users will have almost no way to keep their WhatsApp data separate from Facebook—a company with a notorious record on digital privacy.
