this post was submitted on 16 Jun 2025
120 points (88.5% liked)
Technology
71503 readers
3680 users here now
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Our Rules
- Follow the lemmy.world rules.
- Only tech related news or articles.
- Be excellent to each other!
- Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
- Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
- Politics threads may be removed.
- No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
- Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
- Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
- Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.
Approved Bots
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
I did not know this. I've seen people recommend SimpleX on lemmy too, but probably they didn't know.
This should be an awareness post on some tech communities
Thank you so, so, so, so much for saying this!
Me neither, this is actually disgusting, immediately uninstalled, a founder that has these views most likely shouldn’t be trusted with your data, anyway.
So happy the article linked to the Fediverse post, immediately liked and boosted it.
Never used SimpleX much really but will be immediately uninstalling it. Saw the guy's tweets, he's fucking insane, and retweets RFK Jr 🤢. Will do my best to inform others.
Fuck... Is there an alternative? Can't use telegram cus banned, won't use signal because usa and for a while they got very buddy-buddy with the zucc, matrix requires me hosting and it isn't exactly private... So what's left?
XMPP? The clients not supporting things can suck, but it's worked well for me.
It is forkable if necessary. I do think SimpleX is a great piece of software that shouldn't be reinvented because of the founder.
The write-up I'm referencing has some at the end. Maybe Delta chat?
why does matrix require you self hosting? There’s a bunch of free open-signup servers available
Although I don't totally oppose judging people because of their views (shaming has been and can be a very useful for improving societies), I wonder if software written by such people should be. Seems to me that we don't have the abundance of software yet that would allow doing that.
Especially I'm wary of judging people for being dumb in applications like Twitter that use dark patterns to entice them into being dumb. In some way it feels to me like punching down, like blaming the victim.
Are you asking if I insist that the minds behind my secure private chat have some moral standing and common sense? One would hope so. I wouldn't trust encryption made by anti-vaxer more than I would trust a plane put tougher by flat-earther. I don't want to be the hero of the next leopard eat my face song.
Important to note: SimpleX Chat has gone through two security audits.
My understanding of encryption is that the point is that you don't have to trust the people doing it. You just have to trust the security research community that proved that the algorithms/protocols work. Or if you're a hardcore security guy yourself, you can review it yourself.
Also, my understanding of people is that what they seem like is no evidence for what kind of people they really are.
You can use a perfect algorithm and still be insecure because the implementation was bad. You are trusting the SimpleX Chat devs to a degree.
It's a tricky line. On one hand, I agree that you don't need to trust the person—just the code and the cryptographic model. But at the same time, if the dev is actively pushing misinformation or has a history of hostility toward marginalized groups, it erodes my confidence in their ethical choices about security and privacy. Trust isn’t just technical.
On the other hand, when people show they who they really are... you should believe them. There are some views that are either ignorant or bad will. I think evidence of those is a reasonable deal-breaker. And it's perfectly ok if you have your line drown somewhere else as well.
Views that seriously harm or endanger other people are dangerous.
If the founder would have opposing views in e.g. should we narrow down the car roads in cities and widen the pedestrian walks - ok. I think there's a lot to this question, I think pedestrian walks should be wider, cars are dangerous, etc. But this is not as dangerous as:
"Do you deny scientific evidence that COVID is real and a real danger to a lot of humans"