EU Signal Group: Too sensitive for release, not sensitive enough for archiving
That EU foreign ministers use a group chat on Signal was known. However, reactions to what they write are contradictory.
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More than half a year after it became known that EU foreign ministers are communicating in a group chat on Signal, it remains unclear what they are actually discussing. According to research by numerous European news outlets, several EU governments have refused to provide information about it, reported by SWR. They stated that disclosing chats would violate confidentiality or even harm a state. At the same time, the European External Action Service (EEAS), responsible for the chat group, stated that no sensitive information was exchanged there. Therefore, the messages are “neither consistently registered nor archived.” Both seem to contradict each other.
Confidential, or not?
Information about the group chat was refused, among others, by Denmark and Sweden. From Stockholm, it was stated that all information about the chat is subject to secrecy obligations. The release would “disturb Sweden's intergovernmental relations or otherwise harm the country,” SWR quotes. The Foreign Office stated that Federal Foreign Minister Wadephul is a member of the group, but confidential or security-relevant topics are always communicated through designated channels. However, according to the report, the media network has indications that confidential conversations are indeed taking place on Signal, for example, about the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip.
The refusal of governments to disclose information about the chat is contradicted by statements from the EEAS, which suggest that “only everyday trivialities are exchanged” in the chats, as SWR puts it. Because if only birthday wishes and vacation photos end up there, there would be nothing to prevent their publication. Former MEP Patrick Breyer highlights this contradiction: “One declares the communication as 'informal' and 'non-sensitive' to evade the official record-keeping obligation […],” SWR quotes him. But if someone requests access, the same chats are suddenly so sensitive that their release would be a danger to international relations.
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The existence of the European group chat came into public focus in the course of the US government's Signal affair: In the spring, the editor-in-chief of a US magazine was accidentally added to a group chat of high-ranking US government officials and was able to read messages about US attacks on Yemen. The affair made it clear why private smartphones with their changing functions and different applications are not authorized for such meetings and why there are specially secured communication channels for them. Breyer now also points to this, stating, “In terms of IT security, the EU foreign ministers are operating in the amateur league here.” Europe's national security is being gambled with here.
(mho)
