Slashdot Mirror
Russia Files Lawsuit To Block Telegram Messaging App (reuters.com)
Russia's state communications watchdog, Roskomnadzor, has filed a lawsuit to block Telegram in the country because the instant messaging company has refused to hand over the encryption keys that would allow Russian authorities to read messages sent using the service. From a report: Ranked as the world's ninth most popular mobile messaging app, Telegram is widely used in countries across the former Soviet Union and Middle East. Active users of the app reached 200 million in March. As part of its services, Telegram allows users to communicate via encrypted messages which cannot be read by third parties, including government authorities. But Russia's FSB Federal Security service has said it needs access to some messages for its work, including guarding against terrorist attacks. Telegram has refused to comply with its demands, citing respect for user privacy.
It could be a propaganda operation, to encourage users from others country to migrate to a compromised system.
Or not.
But if you have enough paranoia to need some system like that, there is no limit to your untrust.
It's what they do.
At least they're glaringly up front about it, unlike the US TLA's relying on phony FISA courts, hardware OEM back doors, and so on to accomplish the same thing.
Give the Devil his due.
Scruting the inscrutable for over 50 years.
Are you kidding? Telegram comes out of this looking relatively insecure and untrustworthy compared to most tech.
Telegram is refusing to give the Russians access.
If Telegram worked right, they would be telling the Russians, "We'll totally cooperate and will hand over anything we have. The problem is, we simply do not have the ability to give you access to users' conversations, because the users don't trust us with that."
Why the fuck would software makers have access to users' data? That's downright weird. Do the authors of Postfix or Dovecot or Thunderbird have access to your emails? Does the makers of Chrome have access to your browsing hist-- shit, bad example. Do the authors of GnuPG and PGP know your passphrase? Can Microsoft access their users' Word/Excel documents?
Under normal circumstances, pressuring the makers of software to get access to user data shouldn't ever have the possibility of bearing fruit. The only way it can work, is if the software was incompetently (or maliciously) designed.
He left russia a few years back and took on the citizenship of a caribean microcountry in order to continue with Telegram unmolested. IIRC nobody knows his exact whereabouts or the whereabouts of the devteam - probably they're distributed around the planet and living the cyberpunk/diginomad lifestyle, flying under the radar most of the time. It sure takes some guts and wits to stick it to the FSB and other russian three-letter-authorities, you have to hand it to them. Nice job.
Sidenote: I've been using Telegram for a few years now and really like it. Definitivly up there with Signal and Threema when in comes to worthy WhatsCrap alternatives.
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca