Signal app threatens to leave Europe over chat control law

Meredith Whittaker, head of the Signal messenger, stated that the app is ready to leave the EU if a law allowing authorities to bypass encryption to check private messages for criminal content is passed. This is reported by UNN with reference to Nordot.

Meredith Whittaker, head of the Signal app, told DPA that her chat app would even withdraw from the European Union if the bloc introduced backdoors in messengers.

"If we were in a situation where we had to choose between undermining the integrity of our encryption and privacy guarantees on the one hand, and leaving Europe on the other, we would, unfortunately, choose to leave the market."

Whittaker said that in the worst case, Signal would work with partners and the community to find ways to circumvent such rules. Signal has done this before when the app was blocked in countries like Russia or Iran.

"But ultimately, we would rather leave the market than start complying with such dangerous legislation," she emphasized.

Addition

The European Union has been discussing a law aimed at combating the spread of child sexual abuse material for the past three years. Under the proposed regulation, popular messengers such as WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram, and Threema will be obliged to check messages before they are encrypted, which implies the introduction of special mechanisms for controlling all content.

Meanwhile, WhatsApp head Will Cathcart again criticized the proposed law, telling the German newspaper Der Spiegel that the initiative "will jeopardize the privacy of every user." The Threema messenger took a similar stance, emphasizing in an April blog post that such measures effectively put all citizens under general suspicion.

"Mass surveillance is not only unsuitable for fighting crime, it is also completely incompatible with democratic principles and poses a significant threat to data security."

"In a healthy democracy, it is the citizens who should control the government – mass surveillance is an inversion of this democratic principle."

During the EU discussions on chat control, the European Parliament spoke out against this initiative, gaining overwhelming support across all political groups. At the same time, in the Council of Member States, the majority spoke in favor of control, but without the support of Germany and several other countries, it was impossible to implement the law. The situation may change during Denmark's presidency of the Council.

Earlier, UNN wrote that an unknown person, posing as Secretary of State Marco Rubio, used AI voice and Signal to contact five government officials, including three foreign ministers. The campaign began in mid-June 2025 using a fake account.