No more WhatsApp or Telegram: the government will switch to a new instant messaging service

Government employees will soon have to switch to online messaging. No more chats on WhatsApp , Signal, or Telegram : all public officials will have to switch to the instant messaging service Tchap for their internal communications.

Prime Minister François Bayrou signed a circular to this effect on July 25, for an application starting September 1. This messaging platform is entirely hosted on French servers, developed by the State, and 300,000 civil servants already use it.

The government wants to generalize the use of this platform in the name of "sovereignty." Because other messaging platforms, such as WhatsApp, Telegram, or Signal, are foreign, with the risk of cyberattacks and, above all, foreign interference.

For example, the US government can force Signal or WhatsApp to hand over their data to the Trump administration .

So the government wants to generalize the use of Tchap, particularly for exchanging confidential documents. Some already use it, for example at Bercy. But this is not the case for all ministries.

The government is therefore hoping for complete harmonization this time... This is not the first attempt by the French executive: already in 2023, the Prime Minister at the time, Elisabeth Borne, requested the use of another application, Olvid ... without much success.