A year ago, Telegram experienced a great boom. Not only because the instant messaging application is usually ahead of WhatsApp when it comes to offering many very useful features. But because when Mark Zuckerberg’s app (or the Meta empire) decided to change its privacy terms, users felt such mistrust that there was a massive move to Telegram and Signal.
Privacy matters to us, that was the idea behind this change. But now that boom could take another direction. Telegram is an application whose founders are from Russia. We have already seen how technology is also being used as a weapon of war with the current conflict between Moscow and Kiev. Cast has put this application in the spotlight. We review the various controversies surrounding this WhatsApp competitor in recent days (and we remember that its founder has already had run-ins with the Putin government).
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Be careful what you read, says the CEO of Telegram
Even its creator and CEO, Pavel Durav, has spoken about this situation on his Telegram channel. First warned users from both Russia and Ukraine to “doubt all information” in the app. “I ask Russian and Ukrainian users to be wary of any data being spread on Telegram at this time. We do not want Telegram to be used as a tool to exacerbate conflicts and incite inter-ethnic discord.” Thus pointing to the possible misinformation of these social media, more so in times of conflict.
He also said yesterday that “if the situation worsens, we will consider the possibility of partially or totally restricting the operation of Telegram channels in the countries involved for the duration of the conflict.” But this was crossed out later, due to the controversy that a possible censorship created.
Following this statement, Durov explained that “we have decided not to consider such measures (the closure of creative channels in Ukraine or Russia). However, once again, I ask you to check the veracity of the data that is published on Telegram channels during this difficult period.”
The creator of Telegram already had a run-in with Putin
It should be remembered that in the past, Pavel Durov, founder of Telegram, has already confronted the government of Vladimir Putin when Moscow wanted to censor information that users shared on a social network which the Telegram entrepreneur also previously created, VKontakte or VK.
In this space, citizens shared information about possible irregularities in the 2012 voting and the FSB (Federal Security Service) contacted Durov to block certain opposition groups hosted on VK. Something that VK not only refused to do but this letter was made public.
This brought him a series of problems and various accusations that led to the closure of VK (you can read the full story here). After this, the tycoon created Telegram and has already had different problems with the government of his country. In 2018, Telegram was blocked by internet providers in Russia. “The reason is our refusal to provide encryption keys to Russian security agencies. For us, it was an easy decision. We promised our users 100% privacy and we would rather cease to exist than violate this promise,” Pavel himself explained. .
The Russian intelligence agency wanted decipher conversations between two suspects who were being investigated for the 2017 St. Petersburg subway attack. Granting those keys would not only give access to the conversations of the alleged suspects, but to all the messages of any user.
Telegram is the most used messaging app in Ukrainian cities, according to the CEO of Signal
Two years later, in 2020, that blockade came to an end and it was Roskomnadzor that made the announcement. The state regulatory body explained in very few words that they had “positively evaluated the provision expressed by the founder of Telegram to combat extremism and terrorism.” The problem with this decision is that there was very little information regarding this decision.
Signal seizes the moment and Elon Musk replies
At the end of last December, Moxie Marlinspike, founder of Signal, the app that competes with Telegram by promising secure conversations against WhatsApp, said to continue talking about Telegram as an “encrypted messaging” tool. He considers that although Telegram offers many attractive features, “there is no worse option when it comes to privacy and data collection,” Marlinspike said.
Well, the leader of Signal has taken advantage of the current situation to return to the fray. He first reminded that Telegram is the most used messaging app in urban Ukraine. And till Elon Musk wanted to participate in the brawl on Twitter.
Telegram is the most popular messenger in urban Ukraine. After a decade of misleading marketing and press, most ppl there believe it’s an “encrypted app”
The reality is the opposite-TG is by default a cloud database w/ a plaintext copy of every msg everyone has ever sent/recvd. https://t.co/6eRGIyXyje
— Moxie Marlinspike (@moxie) February 25, 2022
He insisted again on what he had said before: that this is not an encrypted app and that Telegram always stores on its servers all contacts, groups, media and each of the messages sent by a user in plain text without code.
And now he has added that “all messages, photos, videos and documents sent / received during the last 10 years, are available to anyone who has access to that database. Many Telegram employees have family in Russia. If Russia don’t want to bother hacking, you can take advantage of security of relatives to gain access”.
Elon Musk, the billionaire founder of Tesla, took to Twitter to ask Marlinspike, “Are you sure Signal is safe?” Marlinspike replied: “Signal is designed very differently. All communication is e2ee [cifrada de extremo a extremo]so there is no cloud [base de datos] with all plain text history [mensajes] of all the world. The groups they are encrypted by default, so the only people who know the details of the groups are the people that compose them”.