Greenland threat sparks Signal download surge in Denmark

As Donald Trump revives talk of taking Greenland, Danes are fleeing to Signal in record numbers.

While Trump’s administration talks openly about taking control of Greenland, European internet users are running towards private chat platforms.

Signal, the encrypted messaging platform, says that Danish users are “massively downloading” the app from the Google Play Store amid recent political tensions.

In Denmark, Signal is currently the most popular app in the “Communication” category on Google Play. Just a week ago, it was in ninth place.

Interestingly, Denmark has been in the spotlight for a while regarding its involvement in the widely-criticized EU CSA Regulation, designed to scan online communication to keep kids safe from online sexual predators.

Denmark backs EU spying on chat platform users

On July 1st, 2025, the very day it assumed the EU’s rotating Council Presidency, the country’s politicians tabled a compromise text for the Council’s position, signaling that the controversial law would be one of its flagship priorities.

According to the proposal, before encrypting user content, all messaging platforms would have been required to scan shared URLs, pictures, and videos for child sexual abuse material. The proposed draft triggered an immediate backlash across Europe, with critics stating that it would undermine the entire concept of encryption.

The proposed EU law was shelved in October 2025 due to these privacy concerns. Denmark’s justice minister, in October, said he would no longer push for an EU law requiring the mandatory scanning of electronic messages, including those on end-to-end encrypted platforms.

Meredith Whittaker, president of the Signal Foundation, was among the loudest critics of the original proposal, aggressively lobbying against the measure as it moved through Brussels.

At the time, she described the plan as a “mass surveillance free-for-all” that would expose private communications belonging to government officials, soldiers, investigative journalists, and activists alike.

Signal has since warned that it could withdraw from the EU entirely, arguing that the latest proposals would amount to mass surveillance in practice.

Headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area, Signal has an estimated 40-70 million monthly users, a significantly smaller user base than the largest messaging services, WhatsApp and Messenger. However, the app has been a go-to choice for users seeking privacy.

Signal has been used by US officials to discuss war

Signal has been actively used by the authorities. Last year’s privacy scandal, dubbed Signalgate, revealed that the Trump administration is actively using the app to discuss questions of national security.

On March 24th last year, The Atlantic's editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, wrote that he was inadvertently added to a Signal group chat of top Trump officials discussing plans to carry out strikes on Yemen Houthis, kicking off the firestorm of investigations.

Later on, information surfaced that US National Security Adviser Mike Waltz and his team had set up at least 20 Signal chat groups to discuss official White House business, according to the political online media outlet.

Apparently, four unnamed sources “who had been personally added to the chats,” told Politico the chat groups were used to discuss issues such as “Ukraine, China, Gaza, Middle East policy, Africa, Europe, and more.”

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