France building encrypted messaging app for politicians

France's government has built an encrypted messaging app for government use. The move was announced last Friday on radio station France Inter by digital secretary of state Mounir Mahjoubi (here in French). Mahjoubi said the aim is to create an end-to-end encrypted app to be “internal to the state and intended to replace” non- …

[John Savard]

Why?

They have this encrypted parliamentary network and E-mail, so why do they need a messaging app?

I would think it's obvious. Why do the rest of us use messaging apps if we can use VPNs and E-mail? So they want to have encryption for another form of communication that the politicians want to use because it's convenient.

In the United States, the NSA had made a secure smartphone, but it was so awkward, hard to use, and out of date that they couldn't get Obama to use it. Why can't France have similar problems, even if they have their own agency with experts in cryptology?

[Anonymous Coward]

Does it involve the use of white flags by any chance?

[simonb_london]

Why don't they just use Tox?

That isn't controlled by the US or Russia, is open source and decentralised.