Should we continue to use Telegram ?

[HewHiSt]

Pavel Durov, Franco-Russian (French nutritionalized in 2021) billionaire and CEO of Telegram was arrested at Le Bourget airport last Saturday and indicted Wednesday evening, after spending 4 days in detention (police custody)

Pavel Durov - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

The French justice system accuses Pavel Durov of not acting against the dissemination of criminal content on his application, which could cost him heavy sanctions
(In total, the judicial investigation opened against him on July 8th concerns twelve offenses)
Source: Paris prosecutor, Laure Beccuau

Knowing that he fled Russia to protect the privacy of his users by refusing to give the FSB access to our information


The founder of Telegram was released and is subject to heavy judicial control,
which provides for the obligation to pay a bail of 5 million euros or about $5.5 million and to report to the police station twice a week, and a ban on leaving French territory
Source: Paris prosecutor, Laure Beccuau


Pavel Durov risks up to ten years in prison.
Billionaire's lawyer, David-Olivier Kaminski, said that :

"it is totally absurd to think that the head of a social network could be involved in criminal acts that do not concern him, neither directly nor indirectly"

After Mr. Durov’s arrest, the company, which is based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, said that it abides by E.U. laws and that “it is absurd to claim that a platform or its owner are responsible for abuse of that platform.”

In addition, Pavel Durov is also the subject of an investigation for "serious violence" against one of his children, the youngest (complaint filed by his wife in Switzerland)


International reactions :


Elon Musk reacted by creating #FreePavel before publishing a new message saying

"Liberté, Liberté! Liberté?"
(Liberté = Freedom)


"The arrest of Pavel Durov is an attack on the basis of human rights to communicate"

whistleblower Edward Snowden further lashed out

"I am surprised and deeply saddened that Emmanuel Macron has stooped to the point of taking hostages in order to gain access to private communications. This demeans not only France, but the entire world"


Dmitry Peskov, the spokesman for the Russian presidency, said on Tuesday that :

"the accusations made are very serious and they require equally solid evidence"

denouncing an "attempt at intimidation"


Source : France Bleu


Breaking news :


"Telegram CEO, Pavel Durov, asked to have French billionaire Xavier Niel notified of his detention on Saturday evening, BFMTV has learned, confirming information from AFP. This is the first call that the Telegram CEO made, but it is not known whether he managed to speak to the Free CEO on the phone. Contacted by AFP, Xavier Niel's entourage has not yet responded"

"The founder of Iliad is one of the big bosses close to President Emmanuel Macron. According to another source close to the case, Pavel Durov mentioned during his police custody his ties with the head of state in particular. The two men had lunch together in 2018. For reasons that the authorities never wanted to communicate" (BFMTV)

Xavier Niel - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[echelon]

If the French government accesses this data, it will primarily impact minor offenders who are not anonymous and who may face consequences due to their own poor decisions.

In contrast, the Chinese Communist Party has access to vast amounts of global data, yet this issue seems to receive little attention nowadays.

You can still use Telegram, but it's important to remain vigilant about your privacy.

If you're interested in this topic, I shared a thread about the Telegram algorithm a month ago.

 

[miner21]

I think its an area I would be super weary of at the moment.. I see something big happening to it

 

[DontGetUp]

You should never start using Telegram for illegal activity

 

[miner21]

I agree Telegram is not ideal for good OPSEC. It can be done but even then scammers are everywhere

 

[Insurgeon]

You can use Telegram like a post card, i.e. as long as you are aware that EVERYONE can read your stuff and you act accordingly, then it's fine. Don't do anything illegal on Telegram.

 

[bennykoz]

I was once told by one of my bosses.. "nothing is impossible, it's just a matter of money." So, I personally think (keep in mind, I don't think I know muck about this stuff.) if something "appears tarnished, don't run the risk. I believe making a hi encrypted chat platform that has dummy messages with misleading information on say 11 and 1 with the true info. And hav it co-ordinate to some form of system that runs on time sent.. i.e every 5 minutes of the hour significant to each message, but only people who need to know know the real one. Have backup platforms ready to roll incase one gets burnt. And let all involved hold equal responsibility so it has the same construct as the web. Not a single point of connection but many equal. So it can't be flanked...

But, hey, this is my 1st post.. so wtf would I know lol

 

[mr_spongebob]

İdealy no one should use telegram for anything illegal at this point because if law enforsments make a request they will provide phone numbers and ip adresses, maybe you can hide your İP but phone number are realy difficult to do so.

 

[Berlin777]

You can buy just a plain phone with a sim card that you gonna receive a text with confirmation number

 

[narabreakingbad]

I think we should stop using Telegram, it became risky.

 

[miner21]

Session, simplex or good old jabber will be good alts

 

[matijamaki1]

you can start use session or atox

 

[lucas_cash]

Is signal messenger any good?

 

[frosties]

I use telegram since day one with perfect privacy VPN and anonymously bought phone and sim and connect it threw another device via WiFi of the phone with the device I use.
But now I switch to signal and Threema. Still using vpn and stuff...

 

[miner21]

I stopped using TG all together after the arrest. Has there been any real news about the app?

 

[frosties]

A lot of channels are gotten closed. Same as one of mine.

 

[HIGGS BOSSON]

The telegram channel of the BB community was also blocked. For a long time, Telegram was a convenient messenger with access to information through TG channels. What are the alternatives?

 

[frosties]

I prefer threema but session is free and does the job as well.

 

[pinkjuice]

NO!