Since the violent storming of Capitol Hill and subsequent ban of former U.S. President Donald Trump from Facebook and Twitter, the removal of Parler from Amazon’s servers, and the de-platforming of incendiary right-wing content, messaging services Telegram and Signal have seen a deluge of new users. In January alone, Telegram reported 90 million new accounts. Its founder, Pavel Durov, described this as “the largest digital migration in human history.” Signal reportedly doubled its user base to 40 million people and became the most downloaded app in 70 countries. The two services rely on encryption to protect the privacy of user communication, which has made them popular with protesters seeking to conceal their identities against repressive governments in places like Belarus, Hong Kong, and Iran. But the same encryption technology has also made them a favored communication tool for criminals and terrorist groups, including al Qaeda and the Islamic State.
The surge in new users was not completely due to the major platforms’ crackdown on right-wing groups. WhatsApp’s new privacy policy, which users incorrectly concluded would allow the Facebook subsidiary to share their data even more widely, was at least as relevant in shifting users to Telegram and Signal. Regardless of the reasons, however, both apps are swelling in popularity—which raises troubling questions about whether these platforms will be even more exploited by hate groups, extremist organizations, and other nefarious actors who are no longer welcome on other platforms. Although denying extremist groups a public social media presence would be a win, their migration to encrypted apps would raise concerns that secret communications could facilitate further violence.
