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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
National
Josh Taylor Technology reporter

Australia’s home affairs department has let staff use Signal since Covid lockdowns, documents show

The Signal logo on a smart phone
Australian officials’ use of Signal has come into focus after the Trump administration’s group chat scandal. Photograph: Thomas Trutschel/Photothek/Getty Images

The home affairs department began allowing staff to use Signal in response to the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, and even advised employees how to turn on disappearing messages, documents obtained by Guardian Australia reveal.

The use of the app by government officials in Australia has come into focus after the global fallout from revelations that top US officials discussed operational details of a plan to strike Yemen in a Signal group chat that accidentally included the Atlantic’s editor Jeffrey Goldberg.

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