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Telegram CEO Claims Apple Has 'Prevented' App Updates Globally Since April
New submitter devoid42 writes:Multiple news outlets -- ArsTechnica and The Verge -- report that Apple is restricting updates to Telegram app across the globe. The outage comes at a time when the Russian government has instructed Apple to ban the secure message app. No response from Apple as to the reason, though preventing security updates globally in response to one countrie's request seems quite a miss judgement, one can argue.
You can argue it, but people take you a lot more seriously if you can spell words properly.
Is this a functionality question?
I have no knowledge of the internal configuration or architecture of Apple's App Store, but perhaps there is an explanation to be found there. Perhaps Apple has a mechanism to "freeze" an Application in the store [which might explain why updates are not surfacing] but can only do this globally, as opposed to just within one country or legal jurisdiction?
I think the implied situation, namely that the Russian government challenges the use of an Apple application and somehow has the ability to persuade Apple to disable it world-wide, just seems too far-fetched.
Or maybe the issue is human error - someone inside Apple was asked to disable availability of Telegram for users with Russian IP addresses, but somehow applied the restriction globally, by mistake?
Key point being that this is far less likely to be conspiracy fodder and far more likely to be a snafu.
Guess I need to go look up what the "telegram" app is and what it does...apparently Russia doesn't like it.
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
mongols
One country's request, or two or more countries' request, but surely not one countrie's request.
Multi pool new out lets - Arse Technic A and Theverge - re port that App-le is re stricting up dates to Tele gran's app a cross the globe. The out age comes at time when Rusian govern mint has in struct ed App-le to Bahn the sec you're maggaging ap. No re sponse from App-le as to the re son, thought pre-venting sec-urinary up dates globally in re sponser two one county's re quest seems queue ite a misjudgement tucan a grue.
I know that copy editing is a ding art, but come on!
If only Apple provided some way to side-load applications...
To counter pretty inane comments here on ./ I have to say this: it's impossible to understand who is involved and what's going on in this situation. One thing is clear: it's ugly.
The Kremlin wants to get access to Telegram's chats stored in the cloud by getting the encryption keys, and Durov claims such keys are impossible to share.
The issue is that the other "private" messengers in Russia work just fine and no one cares (WhatsApp, FB messenger, Viber, Signal, etc.), so you're left wondering whether they are indeed "secure" and your chats in them are not being spied on. Meanwhile it's well known that FSB can access your Skype history if you reside in Russia.
There's a conspiracy theory that it's all a clever ruse to get more people on Telegram (after all, this whole situation has made Telegram a lot more popular in the world than it was before) while those in power can actually read your correspondence in it (aside from p2p encrypted chats which people don't really use).
Durov can say and claim whatever he wants but your chats' history and files you send in Telegram are stored in plain text on Durov's servers. That alone should alert people but most don't care as long as it's advertised as "private" and "secure". It's certainly not private and it's not exactly clear whether it's indeed secure.
If you really care about privacy, use Signal or Wire.
Since Russia seems to have requested Apple to prevent upgrades, my guess is the unpatched version is crackable by Russia and they lose that as soon as Apple lets out the update. So Russia's trying to do their spying/crime prevention/anti-terrorism work before Apple relents and lets the update happen.
While I admire the fact that Telegram really seems to be standing their ground, I'd recommend switching to Signal, which is open source through-and through, and thus slightly less probable to be hacked or coerced by governments.
And on Android you could just download and update from a website, if a government would force Google to remove it from the Play Store, or block security updates.
So a CEO is making up conspiracy theories because Russia is trying to ban it in Russia...
Well if itâ(TM)s Russia Iâ(TM)ll sure as hell come up with tons of conspiracy theories... because one of them will sure happen.... mostly the ones where you end up dead.... question is only if itâ(TM)s radioactive poisoning, chemical weapon, biological weapon, assassination, hacking, gun, knives, blunt objects etc... list goes on...
The poor girl is still single, at her age? Let's find her a suitable bachelor ASAP!
I think it is some kind of gay porn sharing app. Just ask "Miss Judgement"!
Use Conversations or other program that uses standard XMPP protocols. Conversations has built in end-to-end OMEMO encryption.
It allows people to communicate (purportedly) securely, out from under the prying eyes of the Russian gov't. My take is that the Russian gov't demanded a backdoor - the Telegram people refused - so the "app" got banned in Russia. It seems that it may be though, that that gov't's influence is transnational if Apple is truly caving in to the tyrant's demands.
Use a Google voice or other ghost number to sign up, then. Duh