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Since war plans leaked this week, global downloads for Signal have roughly doubled, app tracking firm Appfigures told Semafor. (TechCrunch first reported on the boost).
In the US, daily downloads tripled to more than 60,000. In Yemen, where the app is less popular, downloads increased by five times to more than 1,000 per day, bringing the platform from No. 50 in the iOS social media app rankings to No. 9 in the country today.
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While the news resurfaced privacy concerns that may drive users to encrypted apps, the boost could also suggest growing adoption from bad actors. Many terrorist groups operate in Yemen, according to the US State Department, including the Houthis, who were the target of the airstrikes discussed in the leaked Signal communications.
Terrorist organizations have been known to use encrypted chat platforms in the past, making it difficult for law enforcement to track their communications and movements. ISIS reportedly used Telegram and WhatsApp to plan the 2015 attack in Paris, and the companies faced pressure in the following years to remove extremist content and turn over account details to governments.
Signal has yet to come under public scrutiny for that reason, though it’s likely to spur deeper discussions on digital privacy in the US as Democrats cried foul and a lawsuit was filed this week.