How well do you know your group chats?

World view

- By Callie Hollermann

Hey, are you sure you want to send that to your group chat? Like, 1,000 percent sure?

Just checking. Because last week was a strange one in the history of the group chat, those seemingly intimate text conversations that ping back and forth among friends and family members and, apparently, national security personnel.

On Monday, the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg, wrote that he had accidentally been added to a group chat on the encrypted messaging app Signal. He followed along as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth laid out attack plans against Houthi strongholds in Yemen and watched other national security officials post celebratory emoji after the strikes.

As lawmakers on both sides of the aisle condemned the security breach, Americans with their own unruly group chats watched with recognition and disbelief: how had some of the country's most powerful officials managed to so badly bungle using technology that millions of people rely on every day?

"Obviously it's a very relatable screw-up," Goldberg said during an interview with Tim Miller of The Bulwark, adding, "We've all sent texts to the wrong people."

Those inadvertent texts, however, don't typically contain high-stakes national security information being shared outside secure government channels.