Maybe your assumption that something dubious is going on can be eliminated by Occam's razor? Because: any business that gains in popularity will automatically also see higher press coverage.

Occam's razor is good in theory but when you have powerful actors that can collude against people's best interest it's very harmful.

Where is the data that “women specifically in tech have more unfortunate encounters with men” than other industries?

Isn't it the case not just in tech, but literally in any field that is male-dominated? I strongly doubt that the problem you describe is any less prevalent in finance or academia, for example. Not a comprehensive list, of course, those were just two off the top of my head.

Yes obviously any male dominated industries was the point

If you raise Signal's profile then I think you can expect some half-informed tech journalists to start writing about it without fully understanding it.

I mean it makes sense. People are concerned about data privacy on WhatsApp so they move to signal. Then the people who have always said “signal isn’t perfectly secure” must reiterate to the masses what that have said many times before.

Alternatively - you're only because you're noticing it now because of the WhatsApp drama

Thomas Brewster has been on the encrypted messaging apps and law enforcement beat for a very long time and puts these stories out with regularity

WhatsApp is even worse, let us not even go there. If anything, I would go with Briar.