@alisynthesis @JohnnieMac @NebulaTide
Y’all, using #Signal is a Bad Idea™, all because it is a centralized platform. Centralized platforms are
- vulnerable to changes in policies and management (see Twitter/X, Tumblr, Reddit, YouTube, …)
- vulnerable to downtime (see #Cloudflare and #AWS outages making large parts of the Internet inaccessible)
- at greater threat of backdoors, DDoS, and government pressure, since there’s much more to be gained than targeting smaller servers on federated networks
You’re using a federated social network, the Fediverse. Similarly, I use a federated platform as my primary means of chat and AV calls, and recommend you all do the same too. It’s called #Jabber a.k.a. #XMPP.
The easiest way to start using it is to install Quicksy (Play Store, App Store, F-Droid) or Prāv (Play Store, F-Droid). They use your phone number for registration and contact discovery, similar to Signal, Telegram, and WhatsApp.
You also have many apps and servers which do not need a phone number - see my quick and easy user’s guide to XMPP to learn more.
And, as with anything I recommend, they are #FreedomRespecting software a.k.a. #libre software (sometimes mistakenly called #OpenSource or #FOSS) - the only kind of software that is trustworthy and resistant to monopolies.
PS I don’t know who needs to hear this, but please do better than just following the herd and installing whatever the people in your circle did. That’s how every abusive centralized big tech platform gets its power.
