Signal founder Moxie Marlinspike uses US defence groupchat blunder to promote app, mocks JD Vance, ‘Many great reasons…’

Moxie Marlinspike, the founder of messaging app Signal has mocked United States Vice President JD Vance for “randomly adding” a journalist to an official group chat, and used it as a way to promote the app to more users.

Signal grabbed headlines this month after a journalist said he was mistakenly added to an official group chat discussing US military moves in Yemen. The incident has brought multiple officials under fire, and kickstarted a debate on secure means of communication for official purposes.

‘Don’t Sleep on This Opportunity…’ Moxie Marlinspike Tells Users

“There are so many great reasons to be on Signal. Now including the opportunity for the vice president of the United States of America to randomly add you to a group chat for coordination of sensitive military operations,” Moxie Marlinspike wrote on social media platform X (formerly known as Twitter).

“Don’t sleep on this opportunity…” he added, jokingly luring more potential customers to download and use the Signal app.

Notably, this is Moxie Marlinkspike's first post on the platform in three months (since December 10, 2024), after he replied to a query on March 8, asking him about a past presentation on “how technology has destroyed my heroes, and why they’ll never be born again”.

Who Is Moxie Marlinspike? More About Signal…

Signal was launched more than 10 years back by an entrepreneur only identified as Moxie Marlinspike. He created the app by merging two existing open source apps — one for voice calls and one for texting. Signal itself is also open source.

Moxie Marlinspike previously held position as Head of Product Security at Twitter and left after selling his mobile security startup to the microblogging platform.

The nonprofit Signal Foundation was set up in 2018 “with no advertisers or investors, sustained only by the people who use and value it” as per the website. The foundation's board has five members, including WhatsApp co-founder Brian Acton, who donated $50 million to set up the foundation.

What's Happened with the US official's Signal Group Chat Blunder?

Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg has claimed that he was mistakenly added to a US defence officials chat hours before a strike on Yemen, ordered by US President Donald Trump.

Responding to the claim, the US National Security Council said that the text chain released by Godlberg “appears to be authentic”, adding that they are looking into how the mistake happened.

Defending the security of its app, Meredith Whittaker, president of Signal also took to X, saying: “Signal is the gold standard in private comms.”

(With inputs from AP)