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San Francisco. WhatsApp co-founder Brian Acton takes over the leadership of the competing chat service Signal – at least until a permanent new boss is found. Signal founder Moxie Marlinspike announced on Monday that he would be leaving the top job within a month. He wants to bring someone in “with fresh energy” and will concentrate on the search for a successor.
Signal has around 40 million active users per month. The app uses so-called end-to-end encryption, in which chat content is only available in clear text for the users involved.
Signal benefits from WhatsApp controversy
Last year, Signal benefited from the controversy surrounding the new terms of use for WhatsApp with an influx of new users. At that time, there were fears that WhatsApp would share more data with the parent company Facebook – which the service always rejected.
The encryption algorithm developed by Signal is also used by WhatsApp. Acton has been involved with Signal since he left the Facebook group a few years after the WhatsApp takeover and distanced himself from the online network.
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Signal recently switched to a controversial project with the plan to make untraceable digital payments available to users. According to US media reports, some Signal employees feared that this could cause the chat service major problems with, among other things, US regulatory authorities.
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