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Governments in France, Germany, Poland, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Belgium have begun launching internal messaging services for officials to exchange sensitive information, in an effort to stop staff from using popular encrypted apps and switch to local alternatives they can control. The NATO defense alliance also has its own messenger, and the European Commission plans to make the switch by the end of the year.
The move towards government-controlled messaging apps is part of Europe's search for alternatives to American technology, driven by fears of strategic dependence on Washington. WhatsApp is owned by American tech giant Meta, while Signal is run by a US-based non-profit and managed by a large community of open-source software enthusiasts.
The push to disassociate from US companies also reflects growing recognition among governments of the vulnerabilities of major messaging apps for sharing sensitive information between politicians.
“Our communication currently often takes place via platforms over which we have no control. In a world where technology is increasingly being used as a tool of power, this poses a risk ,” Willemijn Aerdts, the Netherlands’ digital minister, told POLITICO in a statement.
WhatsApp and Signal have faced cybersecurity challenges in recent weeks. Last month, dozens of cybersecurity agencies warned that Russian hacking groups were targeting political and government officials on the messengers with high-level phishing attacks.
The risks also became apparent in Brussels: The European Commission told some of its top officials to shut down a group on the messaging app Signal, POLITICO reported this month, and the EU was the victim of a series of cybersecurity breaches that affected, among other things, its mobile device management system.
Belgium was the latest European government to unveil a secure internal messaging service last month, for use by public officials for sensitive but unclassified information. Members of the federal government, including Prime Minister Bart De Wever, are now encouraged to use an app called BEAM, which comes with all the features of popular apps like WhatsApp and Signal, but operates under government control.
There is no suggestion that apps like Signal and WhatsApp, which use end-to-end encryption, the gold standard for messaging security, are any more insecure than their alternatives. Much of what is driving this shift is the need for features such as access controls, the ability to only allow conversations between certain people, and control over metadata that shows where and when calls and messages are made and sent.
For transparency activists, the move to government-controlled apps is long overdue. Democracy groups have complained that policies on end-to-end encrypted communications and cybersecurity, such as disappearing messages in consumer apps, have overshadowed important decisions.
Commission President Ursula von der Leyen last year faced a vote of no confidence (which was ultimately unsuccessful) partly due to access to messages she exchanged with Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla ahead of a multi-billion euro vaccine deal, which she did not disclose.
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