Signal Founder Pokes Fun at the Military Group Chat Mistake

A major security leak involving secure messaging platform Signal sparked widespread alarm throughout the country — but the platform’s founder didn’t appear too concerned.

In a post on X on Monday afternoon, Matthew Rosenfeld, who goes as Moxie Marlinspike, poked fun at the group message leak and used it to ironically promote the “many great reasons to be on Signal.”

“Now including the opportunity for the vice president of the United States of America to randomly add you to a group chat for coordination of sensitive military operations,” the founder and former Signal CEO wrote in the post.

Rosenfeld was referring to Monday’s news that The Atlantic’s editor in chief was accidentally added to a Signal group chat called “Houthi PC small group.” The “PC” refers to the principal committee, and the chat included senior US officials, including Vice President JD Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

The chat’s constituents were discussing sensitive military operations, such as strikes on Yemen’s Houthi rebels, according to The Atlantic’s editor in chief Jeffrey Goldberg.

Rosenfeld wasn’t the only social media user to poke fun at the topic. However, comments on his post were mixed, with some blaming the officials who made the mistake and others saying that the platform should improve its security.

Rosenfeld’s reaction is a sharp contrast to that of that of Democratic and Republican officials, many of whom expressed alarm at the security leak. Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas told reporters the incident “sounds like a huge screwup” and that “somebody dropped the ball.” Republican Sen. Jim Risch of Idaho said Tuesday there will be an investigation into the incident, The Hill reported.

Signal is a nonprofit, open-sourced, and end-to-end encrypted messaging platform that has emerged as one of the most popular messaging apps over the last few years. Only recipients can see messages, making it a common choice for journalists, government officials, and tech giants.

Signal and founder Rosenfeld did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.