X is reportedly blocking links to secure Signal contact pages – Ars Technica

Signal has recently become a popular organizing tool among government workers.
X, the social platform formerly known as Twitter, is seemingly blocking links to Signal, the encrypted messaging platform, according to journalist Matt Binder and other firsthand accounts.Binder wrote in his Disruptionist newsletter Sunday that links to Signal.me, a domain that offers a way to connect directly to Signal users, are blocked on public posts, direct messages, and profile pages. Error messages—including “Message not sent,” “Something went wrong,” and profiles tagged as “considered malware” or “potentially harmful”—give no direct suggestion of a block. But posts on X, reporting at The Verge, and other sources suggest that Signal.me links are broadly banned.Signal.me links that were already posted on X prior to the recent change now show a “Warning: this link may be unsafe” interstitial page rather than opening the link directly. Links to Signal handles and the Signal homepage are still functioning on X.Binder, a former Mashable reporter who was once blocked by X (then Twitter) for reporting on owner Elon Musk and accounts related to his private jet travel, credited the first reports to an X post by security research firm Mysk.Signal is an end-to-end encrypted messaging platform, with data stored not on Signal’s servers but on users’ devices. It is a tool frequently used by reporters and investigators working with confidential sources and informants. Signal has used by many government employees to communicate among themselves, as agents of X owner Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) have gained increasing access to official data systems.Twitter/X has previously blocked or restricted links to outside services. Twitter briefly banned all links to Instagram, the federated service Mastodon, and other platforms in mid-December 2022, only to reverse its policy less than 48 hours later. In April 2023, ahead of Substack debuting a “Notes” feature allowing for short posts from creators, Twitter blocked links to Substack, and again undid the change after pushback from users.Ars has reached out to X for comment and will update this post with any response. Ars Technica has been separating the signal from
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Source: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/02/x-is-reportedly-blocking-links-to-secure-signal-contact-pages/