Signal's "auto-delete history" setting

And we aren’t talking about the chat history—we’re talking about actual history.

It’s been two days since journalist Jeffrey Goldberg published an explosive report in the Atlantic about how the Trump administration accidentally included him on a group chat about their plans to bomb Yemen—and WOOF, it feels like we’ve lived through about six crisis comms cycles since then.

First, the Trump administration denied that classified information had been included in the chats. Seems dubious, considering that when Psst co-founder Jennifer Gibson used to litigate drone strikes in Yemen, the U.S. government wouldn’t even confirm or deny that the strikes happened when family members who lost loved ones tried to obtain information. Then we had Michael Waltz, the person who invited Goldberg to the chat, claiming he doesn’t know Goldberg—which, again, not so sure we’re gonna take at face value).

Then, Goldberg released the texts, which it turns out did include highly detailed, minute-by-minute reports on the bomb strikes against Yemen’s Houthis earlier this month.

Pivot to Trump blaming… Signal, trying to deflect from what is obviously a massive security breach and legal fiasco by claiming the app might be “defective.” Look, we’ve all tried to onboard our septuagenarian loved ones onto Signal in the last couple of weeks and frankly, user adoption in that demographic has not been high. But of course, this isn’t about Signal. We’ve said it before—Signal is secure, but it’s only as secure as the people using it. If you accidentally add someone to your chat, and then don’t notice he’s in the chat??? That, my friend, is on … (who is next in line to be blamed—the underwater internet cables? Will report back.)

But while Signal is not to blame here, it’s important to ask why these conversations were happening on the app in the first place.

The Federal Records Act requires the government to save and preserve key documents around decision making. That's so that later down the road, Americans know what the government is doing in our name and can have discussions about whether or not it was the right thing to do.

Which brings us back to why these top national security officials are communicating on Signal. One can only assume they're trying to auto delete history.

For those of you who still work inside the government, it's so important that we preserve what they're trying to auto delete. And yes, Signal can be helpful in that process. (Just be careful who you add to the group chat!!!)

If you want some more tips on how to stay secure while trying to speak up and speak out and preserve history, get in touch.

And for those trying to delete war plans, Signal probably is your best bet.

Just don't take your phone to Russia.