Telegram CEO Pavel Durov lashed out at Signal, claiming the messaging service is not secure and has ties to US intelligence agencies.
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There is no evidence that Signal is affiliated with the US government as described by Durov.
Durov spoke out on his Telegram channel on Wednesday, pressing a variety of points against the rival messenger app, including claiming it has ongoing ties to the US government, doubting its end-to-end encryption and claimed a lack of software transparency, as well as describing Signal as "an allegedly 'secure' messaging app."
The comments appear to have been inspired by a City Journal report detailing the origins of Signal, which was kick-started by a $3 million grant from the US government's Open Technology Fund. The article hints at the possibility that Signal and US intelligence are closely linked, mentioning that the current president of the Signal Foundation is Katherine Maher, who from 2010 to 2011 worked for the National Democratic Institute, a US-backed NGO.
