Fact Check: Did Joe Biden’s administration authorize use of Signal app for government communications?

WASHINGTON, DC: The Atlantic's editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, revealed in his report on Monday, March 24, that US national intelligence officials included him in a group chat on Signal app discussing military strikes in Yemen.

Following this, CIA Director John Ratcliffe claimed that former president Joe Biden's administration also used Signal for government communications. But is there any truth to this? Let us find out below.

Claim: Biden administration also used Signal for government communications

John Ratcliffe said during a March 25 Senate Intelligence Committee hearing, "One of the things I was briefed on very early … was by the CIA records management folks about the use of Signal as a permissible work use."

He added, "It is. That is a practice that preceded the current administration to the Biden administration."

After Ratcliffe's statement, Senator Tom Cotton also made a similar claim during an interview with Fox News, according to Snopes.

He said, "The Biden administration authorized Signal as a means of communication that was consistent with presidential record-keeping requirements for its administration — and that continued into the Trump administration."

Moreover, similar claims also appeared on X, Facebook, and Reddit soon after. 

Partly true: Biden administration prohibited using Signal for 'non-public' Department of Defense information

The claims that the Biden administration authorized the use of the Signal app are true. However, it must be noted that the Biden administration also explicitly prohibited using Signal for "non-public" Department of Defense information, which would have included the conversations Trump administration officials had in their group chat, according to Snopes.

Moreover, a DOD investigator wrote in a report during Biden's term that Signal's use "does not comply" with record-keeping laws and DOD policy, per the fact-checking outlet.

Furthermore, Cotton and others' claims are somewhat misleading as they were defending the use of Signal by Trump administration national security officials for what appeared to be sensitive information, including detailed attack plans sent by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, per Snopes. 

The guidance from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency released in 2024 under Biden recommended that "highly targeted" individuals "who are in senior government or senior political positions" should "use only end-to-end encrypted communications" and also suggested using an app "such as Signal", Snopes reported.

The guidance also said Signal and other encrypted apps with "features like disappearing messages and images" help "enhance privacy", per the fact-checking outlet.

As the guidance did not say it is for personal or government devices, a press releasefrom CISA noted that highly targeted individuals "should assume that all communications between mobile devices — including government and personal devices — and internet services are at risk of interception or manipulation."

Mike Waltz takes responsibility for Signal war chat leak

National Security Advisor Mike Waltz joined Fox News' 'The Ingraham Angle' on Tuesday, March 25, and took responsibility for adding Jeffrey Goldberg to the Signal group chat. He said he believed the account belonged to someone else.

Waltz said, "I built the group. My job is to make sure everything’s coordinated."

"Of course, I didn’t see this loser in the group. It looked like someone else. The person I thought was on there was never on there," he added.

Waltz stated that he had just spoken to Tesla CEO Elon Musk about the matter and that the "best technical minds" would look into it.

Musk is helping lead the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which has been going through federal agencies to look for government overspending, fraud, and mismanagement.