In recent weeks, I’ve noticed a rise in censorship regarding SMS communication that’s not being discussed. At all. I’m concerned that it may become a slippery slope that eventually effects us all. I don’t have any dramatic, prose-ridden introduction this week. Just some news, facts, and observations I wanted to share. So this week, follow me down the rabbit hole as I explore an existing but rising threat to our free speech and what we can do about it.
in the uk texts are usually free unlimited, and a majority of people have rcs (rich chat services) enabled which means they are end to end encrypted - and uncensorable. RCS is very similar to imessage in results, though it works in a different way.
RCS is Google so I wouldn’t use it
RCS doesn’t support encryption natively. Google only has proprietary encryption for Messages app.
“Secure from our competitors”
Aha, there we go. I was trying to put “end to end encrypted” and “Google” together and it just would not compute.
Edited to add: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/01/what-apples-promise-support-rcs-means-text-messaging
AND there have been news that RCS can be blocked for rooted phones and custom operating systems!