Leon is simply tired of not seeing posts from many people who have blocked him personally. It takes significant effort for him to browse exTwitter using his alter-ego accounts, and he just wants to be able to see everything that is hidden when using his main account.
So let’s not pretend that Telegram couldn’t do this: one engineer working on their own could manage most of it.
I don’t even know how to approach that as a said engineer. Yes, it is possible to implement scanning, but it is not as easy as you suggest. Large financial institutions are indeed large and can allocate significant resources. Telegram has only recently started implementing monetization techniques, and no, they wouldn’t have the resources to implement either manual or AI-supported automated scanning without significant budgets, while simultaneously adhering to data privacy laws. As someone also involved in the development of secure architectures to be adherent to ISO 27001 and SOC 2, I can’t fathom any easy way to do so.
I do see the possibility of replying to every request from law offices substantiated with a court order and specified targets for the search. However, I feel very uneasy even allowing the thought of my personal chats with my wife being scanned.
I apologize for rambling and never intended to shift the focus to Signal. I was simply curious about how protected other messengers are — the ones that have already forfeited any possibility of scanning users’ messages by implementing end-to-end encryption. Aren’t they proactively complicit? Yet, currently, only Telegram is under the spotlight.
Is Signal also bad? Saying that there is a possibility that "Telegram was actively supporting Wagner troops" is substantiated at best. Telegram is a platform. Having private chats there, even if you have an option to read the messages on server it might be no easy task to just say that some of the group chats (of which there are millions) are from Wagner's goons? Or linked to CSAM? One has to either scan literally everything, or employ some kind of an algorithm for this. And don't really know what exactly is visible on the Telegram servers if anything.
Signal and WhatsApp currently boast e2e by default. Are they also supporting CSAM and terrorist? How can one be sure at all?
I am a heavy user of Telegram and might be able to clarify the situation a little. Group chats in Telegram are indeed not end-to-end encrypted, which potentially gives Telegram the ability to oversee the content. The amount of content shared is obviously quite high, with many groups from different backgrounds: schools, work colleagues, families. It’s really popular in the CIS.
Any user can press on a post they find offensive and report it for harm, violence, and a few other categories. The report doesn’t go to the group admin but rather directly to the Telegram team. However, I believe that the simplest explanation for missing some things is that their team is overloaded. Frankly, I was banned once or twice. I don’t believe I violated any rules or laws; I am not a war proponent or anything like that. I tried to get in contact with them to get unbanned or at least to know the reason, but I wasn’t able to do so.
So yes, I do believe that not just a few requests from law enforcement could have been made but weren’t.
However, my major grievance with giving any keys to law enforcement is that during the heavy protests in the last few years in my home country, Telegram became crucial for sharing information, as it was not controlled by the regime. With adequate precautions, it was possible to not leave too much of a trace and to maintain a reasonable level of safety. The siloviki weren’t able to breach security or read private groups and/or chats despite having close ties to the Russian FSB. To this day, they still have to first detain you and then go through your device, looking for the information you have stored.
I do not condone any illegal activity being carried out over Telegram, and should Durov be found guilty of direct involvement in such things, it would be the right thing to take action. Still, the risk of having people lose the only tool proven over the years to be safe enough would be a huge blow to the democratic movement in our country. In my opinion, cracking open or even closing down such an important tool would be a very nefarious thing for the EU to do, as this would influence not just freedom of speech but also the basics of safety for many people living in authoritarian regimes.
Leon is simply tired of not seeing posts from many people who have blocked him personally. It takes significant effort for him to browse exTwitter using his alter-ego accounts, and he just wants to be able to see everything that is hidden when using his main account.
How long until people born in 1984 start having problems with their passports in this country?
Is Signal also bad? Saying that there is a possibility that "Telegram was actively supporting Wagner troops" is substantiated at best. Telegram is a platform. Having private chats there, even if you have an option to read the messages on server it might be no easy task to just say that some of the group chats (of which there are millions) are from Wagner's goons? Or linked to CSAM? One has to either scan literally everything, or employ some kind of an algorithm for this. And don't really know what exactly is visible on the Telegram servers if anything. Signal and WhatsApp currently boast e2e by default. Are they also supporting CSAM and terrorist? How can one be sure at all?
I am a heavy user of Telegram and might be able to clarify the situation a little. Group chats in Telegram are indeed not end-to-end encrypted, which potentially gives Telegram the ability to oversee the content. The amount of content shared is obviously quite high, with many groups from different backgrounds: schools, work colleagues, families. It’s really popular in the CIS. Any user can press on a post they find offensive and report it for harm, violence, and a few other categories. The report doesn’t go to the group admin but rather directly to the Telegram team. However, I believe that the simplest explanation for missing some things is that their team is overloaded. Frankly, I was banned once or twice. I don’t believe I violated any rules or laws; I am not a war proponent or anything like that. I tried to get in contact with them to get unbanned or at least to know the reason, but I wasn’t able to do so. So yes, I do believe that not just a few requests from law enforcement could have been made but weren’t. However, my major grievance with giving any keys to law enforcement is that during the heavy protests in the last few years in my home country, Telegram became crucial for sharing information, as it was not controlled by the regime. With adequate precautions, it was possible to not leave too much of a trace and to maintain a reasonable level of safety. The siloviki weren’t able to breach security or read private groups and/or chats despite having close ties to the Russian FSB. To this day, they still have to first detain you and then go through your device, looking for the information you have stored. I do not condone any illegal activity being carried out over Telegram, and should Durov be found guilty of direct involvement in such things, it would be the right thing to take action. Still, the risk of having people lose the only tool proven over the years to be safe enough would be a huge blow to the democratic movement in our country. In my opinion, cracking open or even closing down such an important tool would be a very nefarious thing for the EU to do, as this would influence not just freedom of speech but also the basics of safety for many people living in authoritarian regimes.
Every dumpster fire needs its viewers; otherwise, who would know how spectacular it was?