February 19, 2026 Digital Rights Social

When: February 19, 2026 Time: 14 UTC / Check my time zone here Where: TCU Mattermost | Secure an account here Host: Erin Communicating Securely With Your Network: Secure Communications Apps, Protocols, and Best Tips During our February Digital Rights Social, we will be discussing secure communications apps and best tips to communicate securely with your network. While the conversation will remain organic, and also include space to connect with other participants, we will be inviting experts to join the conversation as well!

This is part of the monthly Digital Rights Socials. Check out the next one and previous ones here:

Notes

What the community is reading right now...

• The Hakawati - Rabih Alameddine
• Project Hail Mary - Andy Weir
• The Expanse (series) - James S. A. Corey
• The Other Wind - Ursula K. Le Guin
• Cielos de Córdoba - F. Falco
• Seeing (Portuguese: Ensaio sobre a Lucidez, lit. Essay on Lucidity) - José Saramago
• Accidental Czar: The Life and Lies of Vladimir Putin - Andrew S. Weiss
• White Nights - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
• El invencible verano de Liliana - Cristina Rivera Garza
• Wuthering Heights - Emily Brontë
• Moderation - Elaine Castillo
• Sunburn - Chloe Michelle Howarth

Community News and Project Updates

• Cyd is trying to (finally) make a dev release to delete all your wall data from Facebook! Cyd currently allows you to back up, delete and migrate your data on X.
• Global Voices Services is in the process of being launched!
• The early beta of Phoenix R&D's Air (LinkedIn, Mastodon) was launched a couple of weeks ago!
  • The beta is invite-only, so if you are interested in trying it out, message @cityroler directly on Mattermost for an invitation code.
• The Escuela Común 2026 cohort has started!
• Tech firms will have 48 hours to remove abusive images under new law

Community-recommended projects and reading to explore...

• Blacksky Algorithms
• When the Internet Goes Dark: Uganda killed the internet. 400,000 people had already downloaded Bitchat
• Rise Against Big Tech
• Resist and Unsubscribe
• Fediverse Punk Month

Because a tool in itself is not a solution to securing comms...Which practices have you found most valuable to improving security and safety within your network communications?

• This is a good question, I think one of the main things is really leaning into message safety and also being sure to not talk about specific things on platforms or certain messaging apps that can be traced. Another thing is setting times on how long a message will show specifically in spaces like signal. That's what we do in some of the groups that I'm in and specifically with our work at Blacksky.
• One small practice I have found really helpful in one larger Signal group I am in that I haven't seen in other larger groups I've been in... The group is invite-only and the admins not only first introduce any new recommendations to the group within the chat, but they require that more than one person within the existing group approve of the new add.
• In my case, in my trainings and other engagements, I try to find the balance between security and usability, because in many communities people don't necessarily are up to adopting more complicated tools even when that means more security. So that's the tricky part. We usually need to find weird balances ensuring the security of this at risk communities but in a way that makes sense to them.
• For me, the most important practice (very low tech, I know) is starting by understanding how target communities communicate among themselves already, so you can build strategies and improve processes from there, instead of imposing new tools and processes. Once this is overcome, it's way easier to create more awareness, conduct trainings, introduce new concepts, and in some cases new tools, but the start would be to meeting people where they are and going from there.
• Skill-sharing and internal mentoring for new members help to include our less technical members and make the whole network stronger.
• Create an environment where no question is stupid, and is OK to say 'I dont know how to do that'.
• TBH lately I've had to warn and then block persons who are careless with critiques over chats like WhatsApp. Reverting to email (not a great replacement) or in-person (limited).
• Even in "secure comm" channels, I try to get people to consider:
  • Is it necessary to share this much information?
  • Does the information I share help those who would choose to carry out nefarious actions?
• In my case, I also have to balance usability and security. Lately, I have been focusing on WhatsApp’s security settings, especially in the context of searching mothers of missing people. Many of them are older adults who travel to areas with very limited mobile data coverage (and dangerous places). In these situations, WhatsApp’s lower cost represent a significant advantage. And trying in small steps moving to signal for part of the communications.
  • It's a challenge when connectivity is limited. Also, WhatsApp is the network of choice - everyone's there and adoption of another app where few family and local community members "reside" is resisted by older folks, less digitally literate people, and people who have cheap phones with limited storage space.
• There is a nuance here where we want people to feel the freedom to share what they need to have the community they need... and yet, still be proactively thinking about what they share and how it can be misused.
• The whole 'no, I don't have social media' is getting harder to do. Lately is getting hard with some collectives using their Instagram handle as their point of contact. They don't even have a gmail address anymore. They just say their Instagram handle. I have tried to explain that you cannot even look at their page without an Instagram account and they think I am an idiot. I think it is important to make collectives understand that Instagram is an addictive app and is simply not OK to force people to join, is like inviting people to try heroine.
  • In my country (at least) it is almost impossible not to use Whatsapp: you need it even for citizenship matters and procedures... also, because if you do not have instagram other people will not notice you... it is almost impossible not to need [social media] at some point.
• Just a simple thing to mention, but I find it makes a difference, is a little game in which we try apps for funny things, or sexy things among some queer communities. People have fun, keep the emotional good feeling related to those apps/tools and that makes it more likely to give them a try in new contexts, after the training
  

Do you have a favorite educational resource that you share with your networks about communicating more securely?

• Locking down Signal - Freedom of the Press Foundation
• Communicating With Others - Surveillance Self-Defense from the Electronic Frontier Foundation
  • Easy, short, and introduces a-bit-more-complex subjects. Full of links if people want to know more.
• How HTTPS and Tor Work Together to Protect Your Anonymity and Privacy - Surveillance Self-Defense from the Electronic Frontier Foundation
• A community organizer’s guide to Signal group chats - The Verge
• https://securemessagingapps.com - Secure Messaging App Comparison Site
• Shira Quiz from Horizontal, developers of Shira App
  • An educational and very practical resource to avoid phishing and communicate securely.
• Using Signal groups for activism - Micah Lee

What are some of the biggest security challenges or concerns you have while communicating within your networks? Are there any lingering questions about secure comms that you would like to share?

• There are so many different applications, groups, chats, servers, etc. It's very hard to keep up with and might create a sense of having too much information to consume every hour of your day. Hopefully there are ways that we can moderate and better control this influx of information so it's not like a community equivalent to social media.
• We need to get away from everything WhatsApp. People really believe WhatsApp "encryption" is safe and secure to speak about GBV and state violence. It's not true. The digital divide between Global South and Global North is not just delayed access to resources, devices, internet services and digital use literacy, but a time lag in understanding that surveillance and data collection are everywhere... and we don't just have to accept it, we can move to alternatives.
• Big tech's increased capitulation to surveillance and fascism, lack of interoperability between platforms, and inertia are some big challenges. Migrating from discord, Slack, Whatsapp, etc. should be made easier. The question remains "to what" of course! So answering that, and making migration dead-easy, is critical.
  • There also needs to be healthy skepticism of the big tech alternatives. A tool may be more privacy-preserving in its early stages, but what guarantees are in place to ensure it won't grow and evolve into a data-mining, surveillance tool in future?