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Written by 🌈Lucy🏳️‍⚧️ | Revoluciana on 2025-01-21 at 16:09

🚨🚨🚨 #Signal users 🚨🚨🚨

@signalapp

I've experienced an alarming issue where #Facebook #Messenger now strips the link when I send a contact invitation to my Signal profile through the chat. This means that people I'm trying to connect with off of #Meta platforms are experiencing difficulty and frustration trying to stay in contact with me as I migrate off their platforms and onto Signal.

1/

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Descendants

Written by 🌈Lucy🏳️‍⚧️ | Revoluciana on 2025-01-21 at 16:10

@signalapp Currently I can make the link work, but only if I delete the automated thumbnail that populates when you insert a link into a message. Otherwise, it just sends the user to a Signal page that says " #Signal contact. No destination found."

However, not everyone will know to do this. This creates friction and the possibility that people won't connect at all if they leave the platform before confirming the connection.

Even copying and pasting the link after the thumbnail version has been sent only returns "https://signal.me" with no profile string attached, despite the full link being present before hitting send.

Lastly, I was hesitant to share this, thinking it must be a user error on my part despite the fact that I've never had this issue. And I'm willing to accept if it is, but I've tested it. Moreover, I've tested it with other US and non-US users and some are affected and some not, and it doesn't seem to be geo-specific in a readily discernable way.

Given the fact that I use (edit: used but am in process of leaving) #Facebook for mildly but consistent #activist / agitprop purposes, I fear that there may be algorithmic targeting going on that is the basis of this issue affecting some and not others.

I spent time yesterday and this morning testing and reasoning it out with another tech-savvy user, and after feeling that we understand it through best we can, it seems worth being to people's attention, especially considering what is unfolding both with Facebook and politically.

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Written by 🌈Lucy🏳️‍⚧️ | Revoluciana on 2025-01-21 at 16:12

@signalapp

More details:

• I was able to receive a proper #Signal contact invite link from a US user yesterday and also non-US user.

• Myself and another user with close ties to me, who shares similar #activist content but lower frequency, both of us are experiencing the same issue.

• I can receive links, but I can't send them (without deleting the thumbnail)

• When I paste the link into the message, the full link is present until I hit send.

• Without clearing my paste-bin, I can paste it in a non-#Facebook chat and it works and sends.

• I have recently had many of my contacts tell me that they can't add me because the link is stripped. Some are more tech-savvy than others, but regardless, upon checking, it's clear the link is stripped.

• I am now able to recognize that the link is stripped when I send. When another user sends theirs, the full link is visible above the thumbnail in the chat. When I send, there is nothing except the thumbnail.

• The links had always worked before, it's only recently that they don't.

• I'm an experienced Signal user, having used it as my primary chat messenger since at least as far back as 2019, possibly a couple years earlier even, but I can't recall for sure. Wow, have y'all really been around that long? Wild.

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Written by 'i am no man' Charlotte Eowyn! on 2025-01-21 at 16:10

@revoluciana @signalapp it does that to bluesky now sometimes too

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Written by 🌈Lucy🏳️‍⚧️ | Revoluciana on 2025-01-21 at 16:17

@CharlotteEowyn

To clarify, Facebook is stripping Bluesky links, not that Bluesky is stripping Signal links, correct?

@signalapp

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Written by 'i am no man' Charlotte Eowyn! on 2025-01-21 at 16:31

@revoluciana @signalapp

Correct

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Written by 🌈Lucy🏳️‍⚧️ | Revoluciana on 2025-01-21 at 16:32

@CharlotteEowyn

Good to know. It sucks, but it's good to know, and adds evidence to what's going on. Thanks, Charlotte.

@signalapp

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Written by Only Ohm on 2025-01-21 at 16:18

@revoluciana If WhatsApp started doing the same, that would be a dead giveaway that WhatsApp's E2EE had been compromised, right?

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Written by 🌈Lucy🏳️‍⚧️ | Revoluciana on 2025-01-21 at 16:21

@only_ohm I haven't had the opportunity to test WhatsApp or any other Meta platform yet, but that would be a good idea.

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Written by 🌈Lucy🏳️‍⚧️ | Revoluciana on 2025-01-21 at 16:22

@only_ohm although, that brings up another good point. Messenger chats are also supposedly E2EE, not that I trust them.

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Written by Sebastian Hahn 🟧 on 2025-01-21 at 16:32

@revoluciana @signalapp Pro tip: Turn the link into a QR code. Try https://www.goqr.me – it‘s free, just paste the link into the text field, the QR code is generated automatically and instantly – share this one. 🥂

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Written by 🌈Lucy🏳️‍⚧️ | Revoluciana on 2025-01-21 at 16:35

@sebastianhahn

Appreciated, but I can already work around it. The issue isn't that you can work around it, it's that a workaround is necessary at all.

The bigger issue is that not everyone knows how to do this or is willing to figure it out.

@signalapp

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Written by Sebastian Hahn 🟧 on 2025-01-21 at 17:25

@revoluciana @signalapp Agreed! 💯

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Written by Ellie 🏴🏳️‍⚧️ on 2025-01-22 at 00:33

@sebastianhahn pro pro tip: sharing/saving your signal link as a qr code is already a feature built into the signal app.

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