So do I still need to provide a phone number when I sign up?
you will still need a phone number to sign up for Signal
From signals official blog, yes you do
Well, then this changes nothing as it applies to political organizing.
Finally!
I see this as both a win and a problem:
As soon as you take away a hard link to a real-life identifier, the sketchy people come out of the woodwork and spread images of child exploitation.
Signal has not had this problem like some platforms (e.g. Kik), and I suspect two reasons:
- Lack of searchable chat rooms
- Concrete link to a phone number that anyone who contacts you must know (and make it easy to identify you to authorities)
Up until now signal has been an excellent secure replacement for text messaging between parties that know each other. I hope they don’t go the “chat groups” route, though I doubt they will. But I suspect this change will make it a preferred way for abusers to exchange images and videos nearly anonymously.
The implication is that a phone number is still required, you just no longer have to share that with the people you communicate with.
That does help. While It adds an extra step to the reporting process (having the authorities identify the human behind the tag), it does at least nearly guarantee someone can figure out who is behind it.
