Last weekend, Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, found himself at the center of a digital fiasco when he was unexpectedly added to a Signal group chat with 17 U.S. government officials who were discussing imminent airstrikes in Yemen. For some, the incident has raised questions about how phone numbers end up in contact lists and how messaging apps pull in users.
National security adviser Mike Waltz on Wednesday stated that Goldberg’s number was “sucked in” from another contact. But on a Sunday talk show, Goldberg pushed back, saying, “This isn’t The Matrix. Phone numbers don’t just get sucked into other phones.” Goldberg added, “My phone number was in his phone because my phone number is in his phone.”
Signal’s typically outspoken president Meredith Whittaker has not directly addressed the national security snafu, but earlier in the week, she took to X, writing that, “Right now there are a lot of new eyes on Signal, and not all of them are familiar with secure messaging and its nuances.” She went on to describe and defend the service, calling it the “gold standard for private, secure communications.”