Brickbat: Signal and Noise – Reason.com

Democratic Denver Mayor Mike Johnston and his advisors used the encrypted messaging app Signal to communicate about the city’s migrant crisis. The app was set to automatically delete messages, a practice that open records experts and officials criticize as a deliberate effort to evade transparency and potentially a violation of Colorado’s open records law. Denver attorney Steven Zansberg, an expert in open records law, called the administration’s actions “unlawful.” The mayor’s office moved discussions of migrants to Signal in response to record requests from a conservative legal group and potential interference from the Trump administration. But this took place after the city’s information security officer advised that encrypted messaging apps were “for personal use only” and not for “city work.”