France bans the use of WhatsApp and Signal on government telephones

The French Prime Minister wants his ministers to no longer use the communications applications WhatsApp, Signal and Telegram due to concerns about the security of these services. Civil servants must switch to the French alternatives Olvid or Tchap.

According to the French Prime Minister, Élisabeth Borne, WhatsApp, Signal and Telegram “are not free from security vulnerabilities and therefore the conversations and information shared therein cannot be guaranteed to be secure.” The Prime Minister writes this in an internal document that Politico and the French news medium Le Point have gotten their hands on. Her ministry later confirmed this rumor to Reuters.

French communications app Olvid

From December 8, government members may only use Olvid or Tchap for communication on government telephones. Both come from France. The first was developed by a start-up and approved by the French cybersecurity agency Anssi. According to Borne, the protection of users’ data on this app is guaranteed “thanks to a decentralized directory and end-to-end encrypted messages.” The French Minister of Digital Affairs, Jean-Noël Barrot, mentions the app a post on X ‘the most secure instant messaging system in the world’.

The second permitted app, Tchap, was released three years ago and comes from the government itself. Shortly after the release of this app, it turned out that there was a bug that allowed outsiders to gain access to public channels and thus read communications between officials. It is unclear what the consequences will be if government officials continue to use WhatsApp, Signal and Telegram on their work phones after the deadline.

In March, France banned the use of ‘recreational apps’ on government smartphones. This includes a lot of entertainment applications, such as Candy Crush, Netflix and TikTok. The reasoning here was also that the apps could pose problems in the field of security.