Signal, an encrypted messaging app that competes with other services including Facebook’s WhatsApp, said Thursday that verification codes used to create new accounts were delayed because of a flood of new users. In other words, they are suffering growing pains.
“We are working with carriers to resolve this as quickly as possible,” the non-profit foundation said in a tweet. “Hang in there.” The surge came just hours after Elon Musk endorsed the service and amid reported changes to WhatsApp’s terms of service.
The changes to WhatsApp’s terms of service are that Facebook will get to see a lot of info that it never got to see before in an attempt to monetize WhatsApp. That of course has spooked WhatsApp users as it should given that Facebook isn’t exactly known for being the best when it comes to how it uses the data that it has on you. Or put another way, nobody trusts Facebook. In an ideal world, this would get Facebook’s attention and they would address their data usage issues. But I don’t expect that to happen. Thus Facebook deserves to have its user base massively drop.