Source for the screenshot: https://mastodon.matrix.org/@element/110340953550548309
I know nothing about this, but it came up on my Mastodon timeline and it sounds very concerning. Unless someone took over the Matrix servers or the account, mastodon.matrix.org seems to be indeed their official instance… Any opinion from the comrades on here who use Matrix?
it’s not messages, it’s messaging. it’s a service. they already get funding from french govt. for creating fully self hosted matrix messaging service
this – AFAICT they’re basically selling tech support, and for whatever reason, governments seem to prefer to pay for things over using them for free
It’s not just support. They are probably managing an instance hosted for them.
true, that’s very likely
Ah, they sell the service, not messages, what a stupid way to phrase that. I mean, whatever I guess, it’s capitalism.
EDIT: We misread the message. It means Element charges governments money to use Element as a messaging app (they’re selling access to an app that has encrypted messages), not for a backdoor
My first thought is this has to be a bad tasted troll response, but Google makes money off this as well:
Google’s fees:
“$45 for a subpoena and $60 for a wiretap to $245 for a search warrant”
So maybe it’s actually legit? Would love to have someone step in. My understanding was Matrix was E2EE and Element doesn’t phone home, so as long as you’re using a legitimate homeserver you should be fine?
Nothing stopping French police from just using Matrix and element by themselves, at least now Element is getting paid.