Signal May Exit Canada
Privacy-focused messaging app Signal has hinted it could exit the Canadian market if it is forced to comply with the proposed lawful access bill, Bill C-22.
According to the company’s vice president of strategy, the bill requires companies to build surveillance capabilities that could threaten end-to-end encryption.
Bill C-22 was introduced in March 2026 as part of a broader regulatory package. It requires electronic service providers to build surveillance capabilities and retain user metadata for up to a year, in an effort to help law enforcement agencies investigate serious crimes such as terrorism and child exploitation.
Udbhav Tiwari, Signal’s vice president of strategy and global affairs, said during an interview with The Globe and Mail that the lawful access bill threatens encryption and could expose private messaging apps to cybersecurity risks.
Bill C-22 could potentially allow hackers to exploit these very vulnerabilities engineered into electronic systems, with private messaging services serving as an ideal target for foreign adversaries.
Critics Warn of Implications to User Privacy
However, the bill has drawn substantial criticism due to implications for user privacy, drawing comparisons with the EU’s chat control proposal, which threatened encryption by pushing for client-side scanning of private conversations.
Jacob Mantle, a Canadian Conservative Party member of Parliament, claimed that every member of Parliament in Canada uses Signal because of its privacy features, arguing that the bill would give the government access to everyone’s messages.
Some companies, including Meta, have supported specific aspects of the bill, arguing that it gives law enforcement the necessary legal framework to obtain evidence and ensure public safety. However, they flagged concerns that some provisions of the bill negatively impact privacy and cybersecurity.
Privacy-Focused Companies under Pressure
Signal is not the only company opposed to the proposed bill. Windscribe, a VPN service provider, also said it could exit Canada if forced to comply with the legislation. The company argued the proposed legislation poses a significant threat to user privacy.
We won't be far behind if C-22 passes. In its current state, VPNs would almost certainly require us to log identifying user data. Signal isn't headquartered in Canada, so they can just shut off Canadian servers, but our HQ is. We pay an ungodly amount of taxes to this corrupt government, and in return, they want to destroy the entire essence of our service to basically spy on its own citizens.
Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.
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