Zoë Schiffer: Obviously, this is important for those working in government, as technically the press and others should be allowed to access many communications that are not classified by the requirement to submit a Freedom of Information Act. If the message goes away, you won't be able to do this.

Lily Hay Newman: Correct. As you said, there are record retention laws in the United States and other countries to seek transparency and information requests. But historically, the way governments and other agencies comply is to use communication platforms built for government communication purposes, tailored in a variety of ways. So, all this has happened because now in recent months the Trump administration has departed from the standard way that U.S. officials have communicated with consumer platforms, especially secure messaging platform signals, talking to each other, but communicating in a very typical consumer way, just like you're building a signal conversation with me in the same way you would. That's what they've been doing, and that's the whole question of how you follow the record requirements. How to comply with safety requirements when you are just using off-the-shelf technology regularly? This is where telecommunication comes in.

Zoë Schiffer: Well, as we mentioned earlier, the person using the remote continuous network appears to be Mike Waltz, the current former national security adviser, best known at this point, a few weeks ago when the infamous Signal Group chat started, unexpectedly adding senior members of the Atlantic News Room. How did we find out that he was using telematics first?

Lily Hay Newman: So his screen is the screen of his phone, which was accidentally captured in a photo of a cabinet meeting, with Mike Waltz attending a Reuters photo, sitting at the table with Trump and many officials. The picture is a bit interesting because it seems that he thinks no one can see him using his phone, or that he is checking his phone. I mean, we've all been there, looking at the phone under the phone desk. But in addition, his screen shows what seems to be signal. So we really have to go and enlarge this photo, right. We are looking at his shoulders. Now we see this notification. Then, in the notification, one notices the signal...often said that the signal is called the TM signal. Actually, that's what people realize, he's using another app called Telemessage.

Zoë Schiffer: knew. Yes. Nothing loves journalists more than absolute psychotic behaviors that are enlarged on a small, small phone screen, like “What the hell is going on here?” But pay tribute to the 404 media because I think they are the first media to point it out. You wrote in your recent Wired Article that Mike Waltz has inexplicably got worse when it comes to using signals. So, I think what does that mean? Will he get worse when it comes to using this end-to-end encryption application?