"There are so many great reasons to be on Signal," said Moxie Marlinspike. He knows what he's talking about: He created the messaging app. On March 24, he took to the social media platform X to mock the incredible political scandal involving his messaging service and The Atlantic's editor-in-chief, who was accidentally added to a group chat in which top American officials, including the vice president, JD Vance, were discussing military strikes in Yemen. "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. Don't sleep on this opportunity," he wrote.

Sarcasm aside, the fact remains: From the highest levels of the US government to Black Lives Matter activists, as well as Islamic State group terrorists, a large number of investigative journalists, non-governmental organizations, and French drug traffickers, Signal has, over 10 years, won over tens of millions of users worldwide, making encrypted messaging accessible to the general public and preventing the monitoring of conversations.

As for the Signal Foundation, which oversees the app's activities, it stands alongside Mozilla and Wikipedia as one of the few success stories of an open and free digital ecosystem that respects its users.

An anarchist developer who hates the police

Such a story cannot be understood without examining Marlinspike's worldview. As both the app's creator and one of its main developers, he doesn't have the usual background of coders and startup founders. Known for his dreadlocks and the mystery surrounding his age and real name – Moxie Marlinspike is a pseudonym – he is, above all, a committed anarchist, who has lived in punk squats in the San Francisco Bay Area, grown tomatoes in Pittsburgh, refurbished a dilapidated boat to sail to the Bahamas, and attempted to learn to pilot a hot air balloon.

You have 84.14% of this article left to read. The rest is for subscribers only.