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Signal threatens to leave Australia over govt’s backdoor push
Will amputate 'gangrenous foot' if laws mandate access.
David Braue
Information Age
Jul 31 2025 11:40 AM
https://ia.acs.org.au/article/2025/signal-threatens-to-leave-australia-over-govt-s-backdoor-push.html
Laws enabling government access to encrypted private messaging platforms
would make Signal’s Australian operations a “gangrenous foot” that would
have to be cut off by shutting down local operations, the non-profit's
president has warned.
Ongoing demands from the likes of ASIO – whose director Mike Burgess has
been trying for more than five years to get more power to monitor
encrypted messages – have maintained friction between the two
communities that has yet to be resolved.
Citing the importance of human rights and secure communications as key
privacy rights, Signal president Meredith Whittaker told The Australian
that “for many people private communication is the difference between
life and death.”
Even if it were technically possible to snoop on Signal messages – which
it is not, due to the platform’s zero knowledge encryption design – she
warned that Australian laws mandating access via engineered ‘back doors’
would risk user security worldwide.
With “millions” of Australians using Signal, Whittaker said withdrawing
from the country would “would hurt the people who rely on us”, but added
that she would not hesitate because “if you let the gangrene spread, you
poison the body.”
Among the users affected by such a move would be the government itself,
which – despite police bans on use of the apps – has allowed Signal and
its disappearing messages to be used by Home Affairs and other agencies
since COVID began.
A recent review of 22 Australian government agencies by the Office of
the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) found widespread use of
secure messaging apps even though many lacked appropriate policies for
security and transparency.
Individuals grilled over their use of Signal include Foreign Affairs
Minister Penny Wong and Burgess himself, even as he continues to agitate
for access to apps he says are go-to platforms for extremists and
“aggressive and experienced” spies targeting Australia.
Securing a high-end clientele
Whittaker’s comments come after reports the government – whose
Encryption Act stops short of requiring backdoors – has been
intensifying pressure on Signal amidst an escalating campaign to
strengthen investigation, interrogation and other powers.
The focus on Signal is notable given that it has just 40 million users
worldwide – a fraction of WhatsApp’s 2.5 billion, WeChat’s 1.37 billion,
and Messenger’s 1.36 billion – and accounts for just 0.85 per cent of
the US messaging app market last year.
Yet its user base skews towards government executives, journalists,
whistleblowers, and other highly security aware individuals attracted to
perceptions that it offers even higher security that can’t be
compromised by court orders.
Concern about laws compromising that security have grown so much that
media outlet The Guardian recently tapped the University of Cambridge to
develop an open source tool enabling end-to-end secure messaging for
whistleblowers inside its own news app.
Signal’s encryption can’t be brute-forced and there are no back doors
for authorities, leading CyberCX executive director Liam O’Shanessy to
call Signal, WhatsApp and similar end-to-end encrypted apps “generally
as safe as messaging apps can get.”
Yet user error, such as but adding the wrong person to a chat, can still
bypass those protections, as US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth found
after an “egregious failure” in March.
Hegseth’s mistake – in which a journalist from The Atlantic was able to
view detailed plans for a Yemen bombing raid before they happened –
exposed Signal to the mainstream and put President Trump into damage
control just weeks into his term.
Authorities are chipping away at protections
While some platforms continue to push back against authorities arguing
for access on moral or technological grounds, over the past year others
have grudgingly acceded to law enforcement’s intensifying demands.
Last year, Telegram – whose 1 billion users include a who’s who of the
cybercriminal underground – committed to cooperating with authorities
after CEO Pavel Durov was arrested and charged with complicity for the
crimes committed using his network.
And in February, a UK government Technical Capability Notice (TCN)
ordered Apple – which has long fought demands for access to encrypted
user data, to build a backdoor in a move the Electronic Frontiers
Foundation called “an emergency for us all.”
A “deeply disappointed” Apple ultimately switched off its end-to-end
Advanced Data Protection (ADP) encryption feature for UK users –
although reports suggest American authorities are now pressuring the UK
government to back down.
“It is very serious,” Whittaker said, “because a backdoor in one part of
a network that is interconnected across the world undermines the entire
network.”
“Robust, technically guaranteed privacy for everyone who uses Signal
[is] the reason we exist,” she continued, “but our ability to make good
on that commitment for the people of Australia…. does face threats from
legislation.”
“We don’t [leave a market] lightly and we would only do that as a last
resort – but the stakes could not be higher.”
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Roger Clarke mailto:[email protected]
T: +61 2 6288 6916 http://www.xamax.com.au http://www.rogerclarke.com
Xamax Consultancy Pty Ltd 78 Sidaway St, Chapman ACT 2611 AUSTRALIA
Visiting Professorial Fellow UNSW Law & Justice
Visiting Professor in Computer Science Australian National University
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