{"id":1543,"date":"2025-10-27T21:21:05","date_gmt":"2025-10-27T17:21:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.actutech.app\/there-isnt-really-another-choice-signal-chief-explains-why-the-encrypted-messenger-relies-on-aws\/"},"modified":"2025-10-27T21:21:05","modified_gmt":"2025-10-27T17:21:05","slug":"there-isnt-really-another-choice-signal-chief-explains-why-the-encrypted-messenger-relies-on-aws","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/there-isnt-really-another-choice-signal-chief-explains-why-the-encrypted-messenger-relies-on-aws\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018There isn\u2019t really another choice:\u2019 Signal chief explains why the encrypted messenger relies on AWS"},"content":{"rendered":"
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After last week\u2019s major Amazon Web Services (AWS) outage<\/a> took Signal along with it, Elon Musk was quick to<\/a> criticize<\/a> the encrypted messaging app\u2019s reliance on big tech. But Signal president Meredith Whittaker argues that the company didn\u2019t have any other choice but to use AWS or another major cloud provider.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe problem here is not that Signal \u2018chose\u2019 to run on AWS,\u201d Whittaker writes in a series of posts on Bluesky<\/a>. \u201cThe problem is the concentration of power in the infrastructure space that means there isn\u2019t really another choice: the entire stack, practically speaking, is owned by 3-4 players.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the thread, Whittaker says the number of people who didn\u2019t realize Signal uses AWS is \u201cconcerning,\u201d as it indicates they aren\u2019t aware of just how concentrated the cloud infrastructure industry is. \u201cThe question isn\u2019t \u2018why does Signal use AWS?\u2019\u201d Whittaker writes. \u201cIt\u2019s to look at the infrastructural requirements of any global, real-time, mass comms platform and ask how it is that we got to a place where there\u2019s no realistic alternative to AWS and the other hyperscalers.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\ud83d\udce3THREAD: It\u2019s surprising to me that so many people were surprised to learn that Signal runs partly on AWS (something we can do because we use encryption to make sure no one but you\u2013not AWS, not Signal, not anyone\u2013can access your comms). It\u2019s also concerning. 1\/<\/p>\n

\u2014 Meredith Whittaker (@meredithmeredith.bsky.social)<\/a> 2025-10-27T10:38:41.229Z<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Whittaker notes that AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google\u2019s cloud services are the only viable options that Signal can use to provide reliable service on a global scale without spending billions of dollars to build its own. \u201cRunning a low-latency platform for instant comms capable of carrying millions of concurrent audio\/video calls requires a pre-built, planet-spanning network of compute, storage and edge presence that requires constant maintenance, significant electricity and persistent attention and monitoring,\u201d Whittaker says.<\/p>\n

She adds that Signal only \u201cpartly\u201d runs on AWS and uses encryption to ensure Signal and AWS can\u2019t see your conversations. Signal was far from the only company affected by the AWS outage, as it also brought down<\/a> Starbucks, the Epic Games Store, Ring doorbells, Snapchat, Alexa devices, and even smart beds<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy silver lining hope is that AWS going down can be a learning moment, in which the risks of concentrating the nervous system of our world in the hands of a few players become very clear,\u201d Whittaker writes.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After last week\u2019s major Amazon Web Services (AWS) outage took Signal along with it, Elon Musk was quick to criticize […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1543","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-non-classe"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1543","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1543"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1543\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}