Connecting to your fellow protesters is crucial. Civil rights protests of ‘60s succeeded because they connected in churches. Progressive movement in ‘30s succeeded because Midwest farmers were connected locally. Economic progress was stalled in the South due to domestic terrorism breaking up organizations. Read Bowling Alone by Robert Putnam for more information. Suffice it to say, getting involved in your community is important.
There are a lot of democracy supporters out there. We need to find them and get them into a safe space for organizing on Signal. The best way to do that is through you. You have friends and family who are legit and politically friendly. If they are a good match for our pro-democracy activism, add them to our Democracy groups.
National news and clickbait are mentally wearing and get you nowhere. Engaging in local politics does the opposite. Do your friends and family a favor. Get them involved.
These Signal Democracy groups don’t represent any one activist organization, any one willing to stand up for democracy in a meaningful way is accepted. There are Signal chat groups for local activist organizations, but this is not meant to compete with them for members. Initially group membership in organization chat groups dropped when the Democracy groups were introduced, but that actually helped their groups. They were able to vet the group members better and limit discussions to the organization’s issues, while having better outreach to the activist community through the local and regional Democracy groups.
We have two overarching Democracy groups, the Kansas Statewide Updates and the KC Metro area Democracy groups. The difference between the two should be minimal, but the KC Metro Democracy group covers both Kansas and Missouri activity. They both represent populations in the 2 million range. There is a third, the Kansas Statewide Democracy Chat group, an informal chat for ideas, brainstorming, suggestions, and sharing. All the good stuff that comes with a typical local Signal group but with a statewide reach. Not only does the group fill a need to express ourselves, it also provides outreach to areas that may not have established local groups yet.
Use Forward function to copy announcements from one group to the other.
If you are reading this, you have probably been invited to the Democracy groups due to your participation in standing up for democracy. We can also add people we know. There are several ways to do this on Signal. If your invitee is already on Signal and connected to you, they can be added through their avatar:
Individual’s avatar > +Add to a group, in the groups in common section. You will need to be a member of the group you are inviting them into.
They can also be added through the group’s avatar:
Group avatar > +Add members, at the top of the members section.
(The avatar is the little graphic circle next to the group’s or individual’s name.)
Another method is to use the Share feature on your phone or iPad. Go to the avatar and select Group link(on) > Share
From there you will have several options:
- Share via Signal. This will allow you to send a link to an individual or group on Signal as a post. It will also allow you send a link to someone that is not in your Signal list yet by entering their optional username or phone number.
Please note, the username is not the same as the profile name. The profile name is the name seen in the chats. The username is an optional identifier set up by the user to use instead of a phone number. It is a user generated name followed by a colon and number. (JohnDoe:1234) This allows a user to prevent their phone number from being used by scammers and infiltrators to access our groups. Their phone number is then hidden from use on Signal while still allowing you to contact them. - Copy. This allows you to copy and paste into a post, document, or wherever. DO NOT USE THIS TO POST A LINK PUBLICLY. Especially not on other social media or email.
- QR Code. This will pop up a QR code on your phone screen that your activist friend can then scan with their phone to access the group. In addition, at the bottom will be a button “Share code”. This will allow you to send the QR code image to an app or individual. Again, don’t send this on a compromised platform like social media or email.
- Share. This is similar to Copy with some steps removed like the QR code feature.
Only the Copy feature is available on a computer.
Signal Sign Up Instructions
• Go to the App Store for your Android or iPhone device.
• Search for “Signal”. The app logo looks like this:
• Download, install and open it. (It’s free.)
• Add your phone contacts? Select No. If you import contacts from your phone’s Contacts application, it could reveal your friend’s real name on Signal. Signal is only as secure as the people invited into the group. There is a chance an infiltrator has been invited, posing as a pro-democracy activist.
• Enter your phone number. You will be sent a verification code to enter. This is to verify you as a real person and not a computer bot.
• Create a security PIN. You will be asked to verify your identity with this PIN every week or so.
• Enter your Signal Profile Name. Most use their first name with a pseudonym, such as Anna Bear. This creates a unique identifier to allow your friends to recognize you without disclosing your full name.
• Allow Signal to find local devices? No, not necessary.
• You now have a Signal account.
Once you have added an activist to the Democracy groups, they will be welcomed and sent this info in a DM like you were given information.
Groups on Signal cannot be “found” like on other social media. You need an invite. This significantly inhibits Signal adoption as a platform, but also makes it far more secure. However once you are on the Signal Democracy groups, you are welcome to create your own special interest groups and invite other activists to it with group links in the Democracy group posts. Create new groups for organizations, projects, brainstorming, subtopics. As groups increase in size, subgroups become necessary as large groups become unwieldy and noisy.
A group is created like a DM, by selecting the pen/paper (pen only on Android) icon at the top of the group/individual list. When you create a group, you will be the admin by default. It is generally a good idea to ask others you know to be admins with you. Being an admin allows you to set up the group’s parameters:
- Disappearing messages. This can be turned off, but it allow a bit more security by deleting all of the posts from all the group member’s devices after a set period of time.
- Chat color. Helps you to differentiate your group.
- Notifications. Allows you to set the default mute notifications. Individuals can override this for their own preferences.
- Group link. This defaults to off initially. Turn it on unless you are creating a private group for a select group of people you have selected. Once it is on, a Copy, Reset link, and Require admin approval option will appear. The reset link will prevent a potential infiltrator from reusing an old QR code or link. Admin approval is up to you.
- Requests and Invites. This is important to keep track of if you selected admin approval.
- Permissions. This is the important one. Who can add members, Who can edit group info, and Who can send messages.
- Leave group. Allows you or anyone else in the group to leave it. If you leave a group on your own accord, you can always return with an invite. If an admin has removed you from the group (by selecting your avatar from the group member list), you will not be able to return without permission from that admin.
- Block group. Works the same a blocking an individual. Except it’s the entire group.
There is strength in numbers. The more people we bring into the Democracy groups, the more successful our activism will be.