“We don’t want to be the exception that proves the rule, we want to be a new set of rules that pave the way for a much more open and diverse tech ecosystem,” Whittaker said, “that isn’t dependent on five companies and 15 kids and a paradigm that is very, very stale and ultimately unhealthy for the world and the future.”
It costs approx 50 million dollars a year to run Signal, and Whittaker noted during the event that there are no easy answer to find that kind of funding – or more – for projects that need consistent, independent and secure support without being subject to the forces of data monetization and surveillance capitalism.
“None of this is simple, man,” Whittaker said. “There is a type of capital that we need. How do we get it?”
The first Trump presidency in the US was increasingly hostile to cryptography and independent technology, so with a new Trump administration looming and anti-encryption advocates making their way into governments around the world, what comes next for Signal ?
“Signal knows who we are. Signal will continue to be Signal,” says Whittaker. “Signal has one thing that we do, and we do it really well and quite obsessively, and that is: provide truly private communications infrastructure to everyone, everywhere, globally. Period and that’s it. We are not changing.”
