After Facebook fallout, WhatsApp co-founder now the CEO of Signal

In a blog post, Signal’s CEO announced it’s stepping down to its position and WhatsApp co-founder Brian Ancton is now the interim CEO of the encrypted messaging app.

Although Ancton is assuming the position for now, it’s not clear whether WhatsApp cofounder will stay in that position.

I’ve been talking with candidates over the last few months, but want to open up the search with this announcement in order to help find the best person for the next decade of Signal. Please get in touch if that might be you!

I will continue to remain on the Signal board, committed to helping manifest Signal’s mission from that role, and I will be transitioning out as CEO over the next month in order to focus on the candidate search.

Brian Acton, who is also on the Signal Foundation board, has volunteered to serve as interim CEO during the search period. I have every confidence in his commitment to the mission and ability to facilitate the team for this time.

The funny thing here is that after every WhatsApp controversy, users have focused on its apps competitors, such as Telegram and Signal. Last January, for example, several tech leaders started a campaign for users to drop WhatsApp in favor of Signal with the “Use Signal App” campaign.

The application is very popular with those who don’t want to be tracked by any chance, and people that need secrecy to communicate. Although Brian Ancton shouldn’t make any big movements while as Signal’s interim CEO, it’s important to note that he left WhatsApp after Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg wanted to use ads on the app.

In an interview with Forbes, Ancton said in 2018 that Facebook executives wanted to begin targeting ads at users and sell business analytics tools and then he decided to leave the company. That said, it’s important to note that after leaving Facebook, Ancton started to advocate more against the company as he asked users to delete the Facebook main app in 2019.

Although WhatsApp doesn’t use ads on its app, and it claims all chats are end-to-end encrypted, the company still want to use analytics toll for business as many companies around the world use WhatsApp as a primarily way to sell their products

You can read the full statement of Signal’s CEO here.