8 ms·

WhatsApp displays 404 not found when I send a link to Signal

167 points by MKais 6y ago

lmilcin 6y ago
I wonder how many users they lost in recent days. They have already relented for EU countries already after I got a message I will have to accept their new terms. Probably still moving to Signal.
- Angostura 6y ago
  Well, they haven't really relented, you still have to sign the agreement saying they can use your data. It's just that they wheeled out a spokesperson to say 'but we really won't - honest, if you are in the EU'.
  - croes 6y ago
    They didn't even say that. They said nothing changed for private messages based on the change of ToS. Overspecific denial.
s_gourichon 6y ago
Can you share the exact link here to let others ponder whether this is sabotage or human error?
eliseumds 6y ago
It could have been a short downtime. So much drama.
timvisee 6y ago
Doesn't WhatsApp make these previews on the client?
- aaomidi 6y ago
  You're saying whatsapp has a super simple vulnerability to expose peoples IPs? Delicious
  - cyberpunk 6y ago
    The requests come from a crawler they host, not from the client —- so not to simple.
  - timvisee 6y ago
    At least it was, yes. Not sure how it is today. I don't use it anymore.
l31g 6y ago
I am not experiencing this.
skzv 6y ago
Related: Pavel Durov (Telegram founder, CEO) claims that Facebook (or others...) is astroturfing and editing wikipedia to promote WhatsApp. You can read his full post, with citations, on his Telegram channel: https://t.me/PavelDurovs/99 https://t.me/PavelDurovs/99
- ikeboy 6y ago
  It claims that Telegram has always been encrypted and whatsapp originally wasn't. There is no way to interpret that to make it true. Telegram chats are not e2e encrypted by default. They're encrypted between the server and the client, but whatsapp chats were also even before they implemented e2e encryption everywhere.
  - intricatedetail 6y ago
    How do you know whatsapp is e2e encrypted and there is no mitm going?
    - ikeboy 6y ago
      The same way I know that signal is - trust in the various groups that have incentives to set up encryption correctly and to break it if set up incorrectly.
  - shp0ngle 6y ago
    Yeah Durov does that He also claims that Telegram is not server-side open source, because then Iran and China could run their own versions of Telegram and he doesn't want that. As much as I like Telegram because of its GUI and features, Durov often says half-truths like that. (And do not forget all the TON stuff.)
    - ashleshbiradar 6y ago
      what TON stuff?
      - 6y ago
n_u_l_l 6y ago
It looks like the signal.org website always sends back a gzipped response even when the client doesn't accept gzip. Maybe that's the issue. I'm personally not having any problems on iOS. curl -H "Accept-Encoding: identity" -v https://signal.org/ ... < content-encoding: gzip
contingencies 6y ago
In China WeChat (controlled by Tencent) refuses to open links to Taobao (controlled by Alibaba), giving some fake technical failure message. It has been like this for half a decade.
- jostyee 6y ago
  That's what Taobao did to WeChat before its rapid user growth.
savrajsingh 6y ago
the link in question is http://www.signal.org/install http://www.signal.org/install the preview shows a 404 (may have always been the case, not sure)
- eliseumds 6y ago
  Maybe because of the redirect to the app store?
OrwellianChild 6y ago
This is not happening on a Pixel 4a 5G in the U.S. https://drive.google.com/file/d/16n39frZkH3ue3Ptwq2-xwu2LE80rzsk7/view https://drive.google.com/file/d/16n39frZkH3ue3Ptwq2-xwu2LE80...
segfaultbuserr 6y ago
It's ironic if you consider that WhatsApp's encrypted chat is based on the Signal protocol.
dang 6y ago
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25720423 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25720423
aembleton 6y ago
Works for me: https://photos.app.goo.gl/LoUBPqQ4urwdf8QKA https://photos.app.goo.gl/LoUBPqQ4urwdf8QKA WhatsApp version 2.20.206.24 running on MIUI Global 12.0.3 (Android 10)

167 points by MKais 6y ago

I wonder how many users they lost in recent days. They have already relented for EU countries already after I got a message I will have to accept their new terms. Probably still moving to Signal.

Angostura 6y ago
Well, they haven't really relented, you still have to sign the agreement saying they can use your data. It's just that they wheeled out a spokesperson to say 'but we really won't - honest, if you are in the EU'.
- croes 6y ago
  They didn't even say that. They said nothing changed for private messages based on the change of ToS. Overspecific denial.

s_gourichon 6y ago

Can you share the exact link here to let others ponder whether this is sabotage or human error?

eliseumds 6y ago

It could have been a short downtime. So much drama.

timvisee 6y ago

Doesn't WhatsApp make these previews on the client?

aaomidi 6y ago
You're saying whatsapp has a super simple vulnerability to expose peoples IPs? Delicious
- cyberpunk 6y ago
  The requests come from a crawler they host, not from the client —- so not to simple.
- timvisee 6y ago
  At least it was, yes. Not sure how it is today. I don't use it anymore.

l31g 6y ago

I am not experiencing this.

skzv 6y ago

Related: Pavel Durov (Telegram founder, CEO) claims that Facebook (or others...) is astroturfing and editing wikipedia to promote WhatsApp. You can read his full post, with citations, on his Telegram channel: https://t.me/PavelDurovs/99 https://t.me/PavelDurovs/99

ikeboy 6y ago
It claims that Telegram has always been encrypted and whatsapp originally wasn't. There is no way to interpret that to make it true. Telegram chats are not e2e encrypted by default. They're encrypted between the server and the client, but whatsapp chats were also even before they implemented e2e encryption everywhere.
- intricatedetail 6y ago
  How do you know whatsapp is e2e encrypted and there is no mitm going?
  - ikeboy 6y ago
    The same way I know that signal is - trust in the various groups that have incentives to set up encryption correctly and to break it if set up incorrectly.
- shp0ngle 6y ago
  Yeah Durov does that He also claims that Telegram is not server-side open source, because then Iran and China could run their own versions of Telegram and he doesn't want that. As much as I like Telegram because of its GUI and features, Durov often says half-truths like that. (And do not forget all the TON stuff.)
  - ashleshbiradar 6y ago
    what TON stuff?
    - 6y ago

n_u_l_l 6y ago

It looks like the signal.org website always sends back a gzipped response even when the client doesn't accept gzip. Maybe that's the issue. I'm personally not having any problems on iOS. curl -H "Accept-Encoding: identity" -v https://signal.org/ ... < content-encoding: gzip

contingencies 6y ago

In China WeChat (controlled by Tencent) refuses to open links to Taobao (controlled by Alibaba), giving some fake technical failure message. It has been like this for half a decade.

jostyee 6y ago
That's what Taobao did to WeChat before its rapid user growth.

savrajsingh 6y ago

the link in question is http://www.signal.org/install http://www.signal.org/install the preview shows a 404 (may have always been the case, not sure)

eliseumds 6y ago
Maybe because of the redirect to the app store?

OrwellianChild 6y ago

This is not happening on a Pixel 4a 5G in the U.S. https://drive.google.com/file/d/16n39frZkH3ue3Ptwq2-xwu2LE80rzsk7/view https://drive.google.com/file/d/16n39frZkH3ue3Ptwq2-xwu2LE80...

segfaultbuserr 6y ago

It's ironic if you consider that WhatsApp's encrypted chat is based on the Signal protocol.

dang 6y ago

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25720423 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25720423

aembleton 6y ago

Works for me: https://photos.app.goo.gl/LoUBPqQ4urwdf8QKA https://photos.app.goo.gl/LoUBPqQ4urwdf8QKA WhatsApp version 2.20.206.24 running on MIUI Global 12.0.3 (Android 10)