Originally published at: Mark Zuckerberg loves him some Signal Messenger | Boing Boing
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I can’t believe I’m defending Zuckerberg, but this is likely a network effect more than anything else.
Here in the UK Signal doesn’t appear to be that popular. Telegram has some traction. SMS is still big. Facebook Messenger and Whatsapp are where I see most traffic. But this isn’t much different to the days of AOL/MSN/ICQ/Yahoo Messenger. Different countries - and even different professions or subcultures - had their preferences.
And if you crossed those boundaries, then you had to have two clients. Or, given that it was all desktop based back then, use a client like Trillian.
I miss Trillian occasionally. But we can’t really rely on client end solutions. What we need is decent federation of messenger networks, using some kind of well defined bare-minimum protocol that protects a core set of functionality.
Sadly, it ain’t gonna happen unless legislators apply pressure. Which means it’s not going to happen.
In twenty years time when WhatsApp/FB Messenger/Telegram/Signal have all been replaced, we’ll be having this same conversation - “Look! The guy that owns Semaphore is using SmokeSignals! That tells you a lot!”
No, it just tells you that we’re doomed to repeat the same old shit over and over again…
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Yeah, as much as it’s fun to give Zuckerberg a hard time, we don’t know that Signal is his messenger of choice and that he doesn’t also use Whatsapp. I’d be kinda surprised if he didn’t have a Signal account TBH.
I was thinking about Trillian again recently when there was that brief impetus to move away from Whatsapp. Those were the days…
I was also surprised to find out that not only is ICQ still going, it looks like a pretty competent Whatsapp replacement (no idea how secure it is though, etc.)
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ICQ is still a thing? Wow. I’m amazed.
I’ll have to check that out at some point in the future. Especially if it still has those distinctive high-pitched “uh-oh” sound as a notification! 
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Fine, good for him as long as he doesn’t buy it or otherwise ruin it somehow.
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Exactly. If I were the CEO of Facebook, I’d be trying out all the potential competitor apps. Doesn’t mean I’d use them regularly.
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This kind of tracks though, Zuckerberg’s privacy policy is often ‘privacy for me but not for thee’.
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“…using a chat app that has end-to-end encryption and isn’t owned by @facebook.”
My alter-ego, @hecynic 
says this is how MZ actually gets down with his fellow anti-union depots.
I’ll bet he’ll keep his kids away from and other social media sludge piles as long as possible. Tech founders and execs are fine with other families using that stuff, but not their own.
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While Mark exploits “dumb fucks” he certainly isn’t one.
Zuck: Yeah so if you ever need info about anyone at Harvard
Zuck: Just ask.
Zuck: I have over 4,000 emails, pictures, addresses, SNS
[Redacted Friend’s Name]: What? How’d you manage that one?
Zuck: People just submitted it.
Zuck: I don’t know why.
Zuck: They “trust me”
Zuck: Dumb fucks.
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- I’d think it’s part of his job to look at what the competition is offering.
- I’d also think that he’d want channels of communications that say a disgruntled employee wouldn’t be able to look into or mess about with.
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Could be that he needs to communicate with people who refuse to use Facebook communications apps? So he has to meet them where they live.
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