this post was submitted on 27 Mar 2025
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Summary

Trump appointed Elon Musk, head of the DOGE, to investigate how a journalist was accidentally added to a Signal chat discussing military operations in Yemen.

National Security Adviser Mike Waltz admitted fault but could not explain how the contact was saved. Trump speculated that the journalist may have added himself.

The investigation will involve Musk’s technical team, the National Security Council, and White House lawyers.

A federal lawsuit challenges the use of Signal for government communication, alleging it violates federal law.

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[–] Certainnarrator3@lemm.ee 172 points 5 days ago (5 children)

Trump speculated that the journalist may have added himself.

You can't even do that on Signal! But MAGAts will eat it up and keep repeating it cuz of how dumb they are.

[–] mokus@lemmy.blahaj.zone 142 points 5 days ago (2 children)

Ok let’s suppose you could though. Wouldn’t that make it EVEN MORE criminally negligent to discuss classified info there?

[–] TheTechnician27@lemmy.world 66 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Right??? Like oh my actual god, if a journalist could do this (it's completely, categorically impossible), then every nation-state on Earth would use it to trivially eavesdrop.

[–] jballs@sh.itjust.works 14 points 4 days ago

Yeah, this would make the story exponentially worse. It'd be like if you got caught cheating on your wife and went "whoa calm down! I didn't know that woman, she just showed up to my Friday night gang bang unannounced!”

[–] qprimed@lemmy.ml 28 points 5 days ago

exactly. I use and love signal. its a fantastic privacy tool - seriously! but the amount of pure stupid on display by this administration is just too much to take.

[–] PointyReality@lemmy.world 34 points 5 days ago (1 children)

With the MAGAts its best to imagine a very low bar, then lower that again by half the amount and thats where they are in terms of how dumb they are.

[–] MagicShel@lemmy.zip 11 points 5 days ago

"Think of the most average person you know, and then realize that ~~half of all people are dumber than that~~ every one of these morons has the collective IQ of a carrot."

[–] Bamboodpanda@lemmy.world 23 points 5 days ago (2 children)

Why would they discuss classified military plans on an app where outsiders could just "add themselves". That argument isn't helping their case...

Nevermind. I need to stop thinking about things. The sheer stupidity hurts my brain.

[–] undefined@lemmy.hogru.ch 7 points 5 days ago

We’re supposed to think “he (the journalist) is so bad and evil he hacked into the secure platform” — not that that helps their case either.

[–] barneypiccolo@lemm.ee 1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

It seems like their best argument is that they are incredibly stupid, and a smart reporter took advantage of them.

[–] Flisty@mstdn.social 1 points 3 days ago

@barneypiccolo @Bamboodpanda really gives you confidence that they all know what they're doing in the databases to make sure "everything's computer" in the federal agencies

[–] jbloggs777@discuss.tchncs.de 10 points 5 days ago

"Hold my unlocked phone while I chug this beer!"

《criminal mastermind journalist adds himself to confidential chat group》

[–] Sanctus@lemmy.world 9 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (2 children)

You know what you can do? Anyone can add to a group their in. At least from what I've seen. Secure for govy talk for sure.

[–] qprimed@lemmy.ml 16 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

signal group chats can have admins and users. admins are able to control access to the group.

signal is a social communication network. yes, when everything works well and people dont screw up, its wonderfully private and secure - one of the best and easiest to use secure social communication tools around.

the real issue is... these idiots used it (probably from their personal phones!) like it was NSA approved tech. lead idiot hegseth being all "opsec is clean" while an unknown participant has been added to the group chat is just... I have no words. these people are playing dressup.

signal on an uncompromised device and with decent digital hygiene will keep a whole bunch of people and TLAs out of your business. however, I do not expect the US Govt planing military fucking strikes via signal just so the "principals" can conveniently sip drinks by the pool instead of being in an NSA approved communication facility.

seriously, fuck!

[–] Funky_Beak 8 points 5 days ago

Oh yeah they are boys playing men. It's some wild shit to see.

[–] doc@fedia.io 8 points 5 days ago (1 children)

There's a setting for that. It's open invite or admin invite. Default is open invite.

Doubtful any of the participants knew that, though.

[–] EvacuateSoul@lemmy.world 5 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Marco Rubio added another account of his in the screenshots, so that was not disabled.

[–] logi@lemmy.world 9 points 5 days ago

Also of nitee is the "Waltz added you to the group" line. Unless The Atlantic modified the screenshot, then we know exactly what happened.