Signal's Moxie Marlinspike Quits, WhatsApp Co-Founder Brian Acton to Take Over as Interim CEO

Marlinspike, who will remain on Signal's board, said he is scouting for candidates for the permanent CEO position.

By Reuters | Updated: 11 January 2022 10:01 IST

Signal's Moxie Marlinspike Quits, WhatsApp Co-Founder Brian Acton to Take Over as Interim CEO

Photo Credit: Twitter/ @moxie

Messaging app Signal's founder and Chief Executive Officer Moxie Marlinspike will step down

Highlights

Brian Acton founded Signal's rival messaging app WhatsApp in 2009
The company was bought by Meta Platforms in 2014
Signal has been endorsed by people including Jack Dorsey

Messaging app Signal's founder and Chief Executive Officer Moxie Marlinspike will step down and WhatsApp co-founder Brian Acton will become the interim CEO, Marlinspike said in a blog post on Monday.

"It's a new year, and I've decided it's a good time to replace myself as the CEO of Signal", he said. Marlinspike, who will remain on Signal's board, said he is scouting for candidates for the permanent CEO position.

Acton founded Signal's rival messaging app WhatsApp in 2009. The company was bought by Meta Platforms, then Facebook, in 2014. He left WhatsApp in 2017 due to differences around the use of customer data and targeted advertising, according to Signal's website.

[Sponsored] Samsung Galaxy S24: The Ultimate Camera Phone With Smarter On-Device AI

In February 2018, he alongside Marlinspike, started the non-profit Signal Foundation, which currently oversees the app, by providing an initial funding of $50 million (roughly Rs. 370 crore).

Signal, an end-to-end encrypted messaging platform, has been endorsed by people including Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, and whistleblower and privacy advocate Edward Snowden.

© Thomson Reuters 2022

Signal Co-Founder Pranks NFT Community to Highlight a Potential Flaw

Xiaomi India speaks exclusively to Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast, on their plans for 2022 and pushing for 120W fast charging with the 11i HyperCharge. Orbital is available on Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.

Affiliate links may be automatically generated - see our ethics statement for details.

Comments

For the latest tech news and reviews, follow Gadgets 360 on X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads and Google News. For the latest videos on gadgets and tech, subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you want to know everything about top influencers, follow our in-house Who'sThat360 on Instagram and YouTube.