My personal opinion is that Threema is still a viable alternative to WhatsApp. The app is open-source, there’s even a ‘libre’ variant on F-Droid. The service is proprietary though. The jurisdiction (Switzerland) seems more trustworthy currently. I don’t really understand the business model of Threema: It seems like they have some revenue from a commercial service “Threema Work”. The initial cost for purchasing an app license does not really contribute to sustainability I guess. I suspect it is more for making scams more expensive. I hope they can be sustainable from that and don’t need to start doing shit.
I really hope they stand strong. We need some influential entities standing up to the shit going on. Sadly, given the current situation in the US I have to assume that the Trump gang will sooner or later try to crack down on Signal. Who knows, forcing them to give out meta data to identify dissidents etc.
At least the open-source app makes me hope that there’s a little less nasty things they can do than Facebook/Whatsapp.