8/9/2020 As Trump bans WeChat, some in China turn to encrypted messaging app Signal

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As Trump bans WeChat, some in China turn to

encrypted messaging app Signal
P U B L I S H E D S AT, AU G 8 2 0 2 0 • 1 2 : 2 5 A M E DT

Kevin Collier

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The Signal Messenger app is displayed on a smartphone in Hong Kong, China.

Roy Liu | Bloomberg | Getty Images

President Donald Trump’s executive order banning American use of WeChat, the
most popular app in China, takes effect next month, but some in China are already
turning to an American app renowned for its privacy protections.

Downloads for Signal, an encrypted chat app that privacy advocates generally regard
as best-in-class for everyday use, are spiking in China, a spokesperson for the app
said Friday.

The Chinese government heavily regulates domestic internet use, funneling most of
its
citizens to WeChat, a multipurpose
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8/9/2020 As Trump bans WeChat, some in China turn to encrypted messaging app Signal

ridesharing options, among other uses. On Thursday, Trump, citing the likelihood

that WeChat sends users’ data to the Chinese government, signed an executive order
banning people and companies in the U.S. from engaging in “any transaction” with
the app beginning Sept. 20.

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It’s unclear whether that would require U.S. companies to cut off access to the app,
but the order comes as Trump has threatened broad bans on Chinese tech companies
operating in the U.S.

China’s Great Firewall, a censorship system that restricts citizens from directly
visiting much of the internet, bans easy access to most other major Western chat
programs. While a comparatively small number of Americans use WeChat, a ban
would hamper those who use the app to communicate with friends, family or
business associates in China.

VIDEO 02:01

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8/9/2020 As Trump bans WeChat, some in China turn to encrypted messaging app Signal

But Signal isn’t blocked by the Great Firewall, both for iPhones via the App Store and

Android via a direct download from Signal’s website, as Google’s Play Store is
blocked.

“We are actually not banned in China, believe it or not,” said Jun Harada, a
spokesperson for Signal.

While he declined to share actual download numbers because of a policy of not

sharing user data, he said downloads in China began to skyrocket in the hours before
Trump’s ban. “It’s looking to be on par if not bigger than when we made it to #1 in
the App Store in Hong Kong,” he said, referring to a spike in downloads there last
month, when China began implementing its National Security Law, which gave the
country broad powers to crack down on protests in Hong Kong.

“We think that has helped us to get more mainstream awareness within China but
also with the Chinese diaspora,” Harada said.

Signal gets high marks from privacy experts because it stores little information about
its users and its messages are end-to-end encrypted, meaning a government that
accesses them in transit would only see them encoded.

Yaqui Wang, a China researcher at Human Rights Watch, said she has long used
Signal to communicate with people inside China, but cautioned that the government
there could move to block it if it catches censors’ eyes, making it all the more difficult
for people in the U.S. and China to communicate directly.

“Chinese authorities can block Signal if its popularity surges, just as it did to
WhatsApp and Telegram,” Wang said.

“The bifurcation of the internet, the formation of two paralleled information and
communication
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