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Must-have for Protests | Encrypted messaging app Signal goes viral, Twitter founder urges: download it now

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Must-have for Protests | Encrypted messaging app Signal goes viral, Twitter founder urges: download it now

Since the fatal case of police brutality in Minnesota on the 25th local time, racial tensions in the United States have continued to escalate. Demonstrations and even riots have erupted in over 30 cities, with several cities implementing curfews. Similar to the role played by the encrypted messaging app "Telegram" during the anti-extradition protests in Hong Kong, in this protest movement, American citizens are using a free and open-source communication app called "Signal."

Citizen and Signal on the Rise

Citizen is an alert app that notifies users of police activities, including road closures, fires, robberies, and helicopters tracking criminals, allowing users to stay informed about police movements. It briefly ranked fourth in iOS downloads.

Signal, a communication app built with end-to-end encryption technology, rose to the eighth spot in this week's social app download rankings. On June 3, Signal announced the introduction of a new "blur" feature in its photo editor to protect users' privacy when sharing photos.

Source: signal.org

Signal mentioned that its system is not perfect and may not detect every face accurately, but users can manually blur or pixelate areas of the photo.

According to a report by VOX, Signal's downloads tend to surge during times of political unrest, and the recent download numbers have surpassed those on the day of Donald Trump's presidential inauguration in 2017.

Earlier in April, Twitter founder Jack Dorsey, who donated 28% of his wealth to support COVID-19 relief efforts, urged people on Twitter to download the Signal app.

As protests across the United States continue, albeit with decreasing intensity, Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden has seen a significant surge in donations, emerging as a major beneficiary following the wrongful death of an African American man. In the last 6 days of May, Biden's online fundraising reached an impressive $6 million.

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