Signal recorded massive growth following WhatsApp exodus

Mar 16, 2021 13:31 GMT  ·  By

Signal, which has become one of the main destinations for WhatsApp users seeking enhanced privacy, no longer works in China, according to a report.

The app continues to be available for download in the app stores in the country, but on the other hand, it can no longer be used for any type of communication. Citing censorship tracking website GreatFire, TechCrunch reports that Signal’s website has also been taken down on March 15.

So what exactly is happening?

Nobody knows for sure because there’s no official information on Signal’s struggles in China, but at the first glance, it may all be caused by a government-issued ban that also impacted other apps and services.

Focused specifically on encrypted communications, Signal has previously experienced similar struggles in other markets too, including in Iran where the service has been added to a list of censored products.

“Ever since Signal simultaneously hit #1 on the 🇮🇷 Play store and #1 on the 🇮🇷 government's block list, we've been working around 🇮🇷 censorship. Unable to stop registration, the IR censors are now dropping all Signal traffic. Iranian people deserve privacy. We haven't given up,” Signal said in a tweet in late January.

In early February, however, the company returned with a way to bypass the block and asking for help from the community to keep Signal alive in the country.

“As an interim solution to help people in Iran get connected again, we’ve added support in Signal for a simple TLS proxy that is easy to set up, can be used to bypass the network block, and will securely route traffic to the Signal service. This new connection method is supported in the latest Signal Android beta release, and will be rolling out to production users in a few days. Our hope is that this will help many people in Iran start sending and receiving messages again while we continue to explore additional censorship circumvention techniques that will work there,” Signal said.

It remains to be seen if Signal wants to use a similar approach to deal with the ban in China too.