A conversation with a journalist in Berlin about disappearing messages

I was at a small tech meetup in Berlin last fall, and a freelance journalist told me she uses disappearing messages on Signal for every source now. She said a source in Turkey got spooked after a regular text was found during a routine phone check, even though it was just about meeting for coffee. Since switching, she's had three sources agree to talk who said no before, specifically because of the auto-delete feature. It made me think about how a simple tool setting can change who feels safe enough to speak. Has anyone else seen a shift like this in their work or community?

3 comments

3 Comments

angelac6315d ago

That's a really good point about how the tech itself can lower the barrier for trust. Makes you wonder what other everyday tools could be tweaked to protect people better. What was the journalist's take on using it for less serious chats, like with friends?

christopher_gonzalez15d ago

Honestly I used to think it was overkill for casual stuff, but the journalist made a good case. She said using it with friends normalizes the habit, so it's not this big scary thing when you really need it. It just becomes part of how you talk, which kinda makes sense.

paigem7612d ago

Normalizing it for small talk is smart, makes it less weird when you really need it.

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