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Telegram is Riddled With Tens of Thousands of Piracy Channels; Apple and Google Have Ignored Requests From Creators To Take Action (theoutline.com)
joshtops writes: Instant messaging platform Telegram, which is used by more than 200 million users, has had an open secret since its inception: The platform has served as a haven for online pirates. The Outline reports that the platform is riddled with thousands of groups and channels, many with more than 100,000 members, whose sole purpose of existence is to share illegally copied movies, music albums, apps, and other content. The files are stored directly to Telegram's servers, allowing users to download movies, songs, and other content with one click. Channel admins told The Outline that they have not come across any resistance from Telegram despite the company, along with Apple and Google, maintaining a 'zero tolerance' stance on copyright infringement. This permissiveness on Telegram's part has led to the proliferation of a cottage industry of piracy marketplaces on the service.
[...] The Outline also discovered several groups and channels on Telegram in which stolen credentials -- i.e., the username and password for a website -- from Netflix, Spotify, Hulu, HBO, CBS, EA Sports, Lynda, Sling, WWE Network, Mega, India's Hotstar, and dozens of other services were being offered to tens of thousands of members each day. The Outline sourced nearly three-dozen free credentials from six Telegram channels, all of which worked as advertised. The report says that content creators have reached out to Apple, requesting the iPhone-maker to intervene, but the company has largely ignored the issue.
In an unrelated development, a Moscow court cleared the way on Friday for the local government to ban Telegram, the messaging app, over its failure to give Russian security services the ability to read users' encrypted messages.
[...] The Outline also discovered several groups and channels on Telegram in which stolen credentials -- i.e., the username and password for a website -- from Netflix, Spotify, Hulu, HBO, CBS, EA Sports, Lynda, Sling, WWE Network, Mega, India's Hotstar, and dozens of other services were being offered to tens of thousands of members each day. The Outline sourced nearly three-dozen free credentials from six Telegram channels, all of which worked as advertised. The report says that content creators have reached out to Apple, requesting the iPhone-maker to intervene, but the company has largely ignored the issue.
In an unrelated development, a Moscow court cleared the way on Friday for the local government to ban Telegram, the messaging app, over its failure to give Russian security services the ability to read users' encrypted messages.
The Outline has confirmed their participation in identity theft by stating they sourced and used credentials that "worked".
I find that extremely hard to believe.
All these decades, other than a very short period before the piratebay was blocked, there has been absolutely 0 piracy.
IRC, usenet, and various other online services were never used by people in such nefarious ways.
Apple and Google have no investment in Telegram, why should they be expected to solve this problem? You can use Safari and Chrome to download pirated stuff on your phone too, but I don't see anybody calling for Apple and Google to remove Safari and Chrome from telephones.
If creators have a beef with Telegram, take it up with Telegram Messenger LLP.
What they heck do you want Apple or Google to do?
That would be like minority users abuse Yahoo / Microsoft messenger and expect Google / Apple to do something.
So, they tell themselves the comforting lie that they're edgy and on the side of the people...while cozying up to evil megacorporations. It's doublethink, the ability to hold two mutually contradictory thoughts at the same time without experiencing crippling cognitive dissonance. This talent is distressingly common among the chattering classes today. :( It used to be something rare and special, but now we see it all the time from publications that are supposed to know better.
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
I don't even understand how this became a slashdot post.
I don't believe it! News for nerds! Stuff that matters!
Something we didn't already read in our grandpa's paper newspaper*.
(* kids, that's like a large papery blog)
Thanks for the tips guys, downloading now...
Apple and Google, through their walled-garden app stores, have set themselves up as curators of content, and they regularly enforce things like this. They've brought that expectation upon themselves.
Telegram is apparently hosting this infringing content on their own servers, which makes this much different. Obviously Telegram owns more culpability than Google/Apple here, but Google and Apple are acting against policies that they have set. Not sure how vulnerable that leaves them legally, though.
"Apple and Google have no investment in Telegram, why should they be expected to solve this problem?"
They could also call the CEO of the Internets and ask him to kill that new email thingie, where users send each other all sorts of ungodly files and links.
Read the final sentence. Muh Russia.
And how is Russia shutting down telegram access for illegal activity and failing to hand over the keys UNRELATED to an article about huge problems in illegal use of telegrams services? Are you really that stupid Josh? Can you not even read the content of articles that you publish?
Google doesn't have a walled garden app store.
Google devices aren't forced to use their app store, and you don't need a Google device to use it.
Telegram is Riddled With Tens of Thousands of Piracy Channels; Apple and Google Have Ignored Requests From Creators To Take Action
Fortunately in solidarity with the pirates Slashdot will have a link-a-thon, promoting whack-a-mole, and middle-finger as forms of expression.
Q: There's illegal content on Telegram. How do I take it down?
All Telegram chats and group chats are private amongst their participants. We do not process any requests related to them.
Except Telegram isn't doing anything to break the TOS of either Apple or Google ... Telegram facilitates messages between people, but not all of Telegram is illegal content, and neither Apple nor Google have any way of knowing this is true, or which stuff is pirated.
I bet there is no such policy which says they will block apps which abide by the TOS, but otherwise theoretically allow you to share infringing content ... because, again, neither Apple nor Google have any way of knowing that is happening, and neither have visibility into individual messages, and neither of them are storing or making available this stuff.
What you're suggesting is absurd. Short of saying "well, this could hypothetically be used to do something illegal so we'll block the whole thing", this has nothing to do with Apple or Google. Every app that allows people to communicate might be used to infringe content, that doesn't mean you block every app.
This is entirely between the content owners and Telegram.
Should you be arrested because you might commit a crime? That's what you're describing.
Twitter could be used to share pirated content between users, are you stupid enough to think Apple and Google should both drop Twitter too?
Almost as outrageous a claim as geek s getting laid.
Simple, this is a easy way to tell people that they should use telegram to find pirate content... and so secure that not even russia can break it!! :D
Higuita
Who again makes the iPhone??
"reached out to Apple, requesting the iPhone-maker to intervene"
Thanks for reminding us who makes iPhones, since we all here forgot.
Maybe there were a few readers here who didn't already know a good source for pirated music, movies, etc.
Meanwhile, the world does not givr a singe fuck about your criminal schemes of stealing money from people without working for it by employing an artificial (and imaginary, as you can see) scarcity monopoly (that's two crimes already, in every other business) on an infinitely abundant something that isn't even a resource (but merely a pattern in a medium).
I should make copies of my $100 bills and demand that the Content Mafia cokeheads do real actual work for that fake money, or else be sued of "stealing" my "monetary property" (fake money) and be called "pirates" and "thieves" and go o prison for 10 years!
I'm not sure what they are supposed to do about that, since Google is also hosting tons of copyright infringing material on their own google drive. Because you know, you can't really control what kind of encrypted files people upload there and then share the links and passwords with others through any means. I'm not sure how the Apple cloud works, since I've never used it.
So what can be done here? Decrypt and scan all files? Not feasible because it takes too long and costs too much. Ban encryption? Theoretically an option, but do we really want something like this to happen? This list is certainly not exhaustive. If someone finds more ideas, maybe some that make sense, please add them.
Terrible headline and dubious article.
Why would creators request that stream service credentials stop being shared on telegram?
Why not sue the ISPs as well for allowing traffic to Telegram. Oh wait...
Maybe it's PR bullshit distractions from the Facebook bot army.
Voice messaging platforms AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, and T-Mobile, which are used by more than 300 Million users, has had an open secret since its inception: The platform has served as a haven for online criminals. The Outline reports that the platform is riddled with thousands of groups and channels, whose sole purpose of existence is to commit illegal acts.
Clearly we must get rid of this menace!
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
MOSCOW BANNED IT!
Why you need any further evidence as to the misdeeds and evil intent of Telegram is beyond me.
Is Telegram invincible from takedown via a distributed service of some kind, or are they just like everybody else with all the eggs in one basket? We need a safe haven from ALL censorship, something that is indelible.
So, Telegram is .. general-purpose? This is like worrying about the fact that Harry Mudd uses the same kind of spaceship fuel as the rest of us. Your problem is with Harry Mudd, not the spaceship fuel. If you make it about the spaceship fuel, you're going to become the enemy of many space captains.
"Believe me!" -- Donald Trump
/sarcasm I'm shocked, shocked, I tell you that people are sharing files / video / music on the internet! Back in MY day we hoarded our one's and zero's! Only communists shared their data with a stranger. We practiced safe hex by being our corporate master's bitch!
Instead of asking the question: "When this many people are just outright ignoring copyright maybe this civil disobediance of Against Intellectual Property (written by a lawyer, go figure) is a call to re-think the archaic, capitalist concept of Copyright? Nah, let's go after Apple and Google instead which have NOTHING to do with this. "
Wait till these people find out that you can share "illegal numbers" through Skype, Google Drive, or even email !
Accept the fact that copyright infringement will always exist; and it's extremely stupid and naive for content producers to believe they can stamp it out without the effects being felt in disproportionate fashion by every-day people who are not pirating?
Further, apps and services like this simply cannot exist without a bit of a safe-harbor. It's unreasonably stupid to expect them to self police every message, every file, looking for potential infringing content.
tl;dr: suck it up butter cup. Go after the people selling counterfeits if you wish, but personal use? C'mon.
That's my takeaway. I'll be seeing how easy this is when I get home and hoping that sickbeard/sickrage can automate it
Thanks for the tip bro
This submission is bizarre.
Even for trolling standards, the "news" is unbelievably silly.
Any communication online (and offline for that matter) will be used to exchange illegal stuff.
You can replace "Telegram" with "Email", "Google Drive", "Usenet" - or even "FedEx" and "Telephone".
Any of those things are used for much worse than pirating content: *terrorists and rapists* use them for nefarious goals. So what?
I don't hear "Telephone" getting the blame. Nor I hear Gmail being asked to pay more attention to the content of those emails. You don't expect the provider of such services to police private communications.
What's the point of singling out Telegram, of all things?
(In case this is Ivan following on today's directive "Find something to attack Telegram", then it's a very lazy attempt. Can do better, Ivan.)
"Whenever people agree with me I always feel I must be wrong." (Oscar Wilde)
This is entirely between the content owners and Telegram.
Should you be arrested because you might commit a crime? That's what you're describing.
You're missing the bigger picture, here.
This is not about "pirated" content at all. That's simply being used as justification.
This is about suppressing an encrypted communications channel that certain state actors including the US are fundamentally opposed to their populations having access to.
You don't allow your slaves the ability to communicate securely to enable them to organize to throw off their chains.
Strat
Progressivism (aka US 'Liberalism'): Ideas so good they need a police/surveillance-state to enforce.
Yes. This is exactly correct.
Further, apps and services like this simply cannot exist without a bit of a safe-harbor.
That's the real goal here, potential copyright infringement is justification, a 'cover-story'.
Neither the US, Russia, UK, nor many other Western & Eastern/Middle-Eastern governments want their populations to have access to secure communication tools to enable the masses to conveniently communicate securely enough that it makes it difficult, labor-intensive, and time-consuming to do domestic intelligence operations within and data-collection and monitoring upon.
You don't allow the livestock/slaves the tools to organize to achieve freedom like a secure way to communicate.
Strat
Progressivism (aka US 'Liberalism'): Ideas so good they need a police/surveillance-state to enforce.
Re "I'm not sure what they are supposed to do about that"
The security services will study the crypto and get an overview of the networks, users for their gov/mil.
That builds the needed gov skill sets to understand any new network, crypto/communications.
Ex and former gov/mil/law enforcement staff will offer their skills a contractors.
The study of such networks will then be offered to anyone who can afford to pay for such networks to be looked into.
Study the network to find the uploader and all the downloaders who use their own ISP and IP thinking file and app "crypto" will protect their networking.
Automate the request for a password. Download many files. Investigate the files decrypted and checksums to sort the files downloaded.
Sort files back to uploader and downloaders ip, isp just as any police force would do.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
Safari, Chrome, Firefox, and IE are guilty as well. Scrap them!
Twinstiq, game news
You (and google lawyers) say that, yet every feature of your phone is tied to a google service app, which can only be installed in a signed fashion by the OEM that build and sold that device.
GPS and all other radio (except bluetooth) are severely crippled without it. And location provider accelerators (like the one from mozilla) cannot even be installed (only with root, which is moot since that is too difficult or impossible on every single device --even developer edition ones)
video acceleration and camera are other aspects that goes out if you don't have google secret sauce. but those are more related to chip manufaturer NDAs than anything else. Still google and OEMs are the de facto gatekeepers as far as smart phone buyers are concerned.
I presume the word riddled is being used in the context of "containing many things that are bad or not wanted."
I don't see how that applies here. Someone is really grasping to find a way to attempt to disparage Telegram.