[thecrash]

There's a difference between an investment and a grant.

What ownership share, promise of future payment, board seats, or other rights to control Signal was assigned to the Open Technology Fund by receiving that grant?

[monocasa]

There's a lot of forms of investment if your goals aren't simply 'turn this pile of money into a larger pile of money'.

Signal should not have been taking money from the CIA.

[throwaway290]

What about Tor? Or even internet in early days, I guess

[monocasa]

I mean, Tor is fairly commonly thought to have always been compromised (if you can even call a US DoD project compromised in the first place).

[jonnybgood]

Why not?

[pdabbadabba]

> Signal should not have been taking money from the CIA.

...

> Why not?

In fairness, at least one answer is obvious: because it created the appearance, for some, that the CIA was getting something out of the deal, undermining trust in the platform.

[JumpCrisscross]

> it created the appearance, for some, that the CIA was getting something out of the deal

They are. A secure messaging platform being widely used gives their human assets cover.