Earlier this morning, a lot of people based in China reported that Signal is not working for them unless they use a VPN (Virtual Private Network) service. As TechCrunch noted, the website of the app was banned in the country yesterday, while the app is still available on the App Store. So for now, there are no government orders for Apple to remove the app. According to app analytics firm SensorTower, the iOS version of Signal has been downloaded over 510,000 times in China to date. Globally, the app has crossed 100 million downloads across the App Store and the Play Store. While Google Play is not officially available in China, alternative Android app stores don’t list Signal because of the country’s censorship law. In January, when WhatsApp issued an update to its privacy policy, a ton of users started to migrate to Signal and Telegram, including those in China. However, there’s no way to monitor messages on Signal because of end-to-end encryption protection for chats. At present, we don’t know if this ban is permanent, but because of the messaging app’s privacy-focused nature, I won’t be surprised if that’s the case.
