Telegram CEO Durov Says App To Provide More Data To Governments (bloomberg.com) 26
Messaging app Telegram will provide users' IP addresses and phone numbers to relevant authorities in response to valid legal requests, according to Chief Executive Officer Pavel Durov. From a report: The platform changed its terms of service to deter criminals from abusing it, Durov said in a post on Telegram Monday. The move comes less than a month after his arrest in France, where he faces charges of alleged complicity in the spread of child sexual abuse materials.
The move represents a marked difference from Telegram's approach to government requests for data and its reputation for lax moderation. The United Arab Emirates-based platform has been notoriously non-responsive to takedown requests from governments around the world, and often ignored requests for information about suspected criminals.
The move represents a marked difference from Telegram's approach to government requests for data and its reputation for lax moderation. The United Arab Emirates-based platform has been notoriously non-responsive to takedown requests from governments around the world, and often ignored requests for information about suspected criminals.
Like any other third world country (Score:5, Insightful)
"Hold one of them hostage until the company complies with censorship demands"
Re:Like any other third world country (Score:4, Insightful)
Authoritarians everywhere rejoice.
“So this is how liberty dies, with thunderous applause” --Padmé Amidala
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They don't gotta burn the books they just remove 'em. Not to mention criminals are using Telegram to commit crimes. How do you censor breaking the law?
Easy! Become a politician!
Next?
Re:Like any other third world country (Score:4)
Do you really think he's being coerced? He flew in a private jet to France [reuters.com], where he was apprehended at the airport, despite knowing that France has had a warrant for his arrest open for years [spectator.co.uk]. Then released on bail and orders not to leave the country in 24 hours [france24.com].
Telegram was a useful place to trace what criminal activity was being done around the world; it was more valuable up to governments than down. So why take it down now? Is it because the Russian military is using it for tactical and strategic communication [lemonde.fr] in the Ukraine war, and France has grown more hawkish lately in their support of Ukraine [politico.eu]?
This chance to minimize criminal activity is theater. Now it'll be harder to chase criminals if their communication goes down, but it's also going to be much harder for the Russians to spot for their artillery.
Re: Like any other third world country (Score:2)
"France has grown more hawkish lately in their support of Ukraine?"
As this conflict continues the chance that Russia will wind up winning and then continuing to attack additional neighbors for their resources increases. They would be stupid not to increase their support.
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Unfortunately the paper claiming hawkish France is 6 month old and many things happened:
1. The economical situation changed and the public finances for this year ended up much worse than expected. Public expenditure for next year, currently in drafting, is expected to bring cuts across all the ministries.
2. Macron's party lost a crucial election in July and the newly appointed Government cabinet, which took power today (Monday 23rd) only holds a minority support in the new Parliament. Macron and his allies
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All back to my point: Durov got a deal and gave up Telegram. The guy is likely to s
Re:Like any other third world country (Score:4, Insightful)
If he really cared about freedom, he wouldn't base his corporation or live in Dubai, UAE to begin with.
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If he really cared about freedom, he wouldn't base his corporation or live in Dubai, UAE to begin with.
Where else can you set up a company where you can both ignore laws (mostly by paying off the locals) and evade tax?
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Somalia is a good bet.
In the UAE you never know when you are going to be jailed. Most expats get along by having a citizenship in a free country (such as France for Durov) and hope to rely on the pressure from that country if anything happen to them.
Non-register-walled link (Score:2)
https://www.xda-developers.com/telegram-surrender-data-to-governments/
The Bloomberg link might have more information, but I wasn't willing to register to find out.
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That's what Matrix is but it's not very popular and all the clients suck.
Places like Mastodon and Lemmy are decentralized too but they're too full of very specific types of people, so much so that anyone not part of the group is beat up and kicked down.
The main problem is that these decentralized systems tend to be pure democracies and pure democracies really suck. Or if not a democracy it's anarchy which is just as bad. Both systems cater to mobs.
Signal is still the best secure communicator but it's not re
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https://jami.net/ [jami.net] seems like what you are suggesting. No central servers involved (everything is peer-to-peer), no personal information is collected anywhere at any time (as far as I can tell) and everything is open source.
When criminals use cars, or banks, or guns, or... (Score:2)
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[When criminals use cars, or banks, or guns, or...] in the commission of crimes, they never go after these types of companies.
Those companies "play ball." In my country, cars have vehicle identification numbers (and license plates). Banks have "know your customer" and "report suspected money-laundering" laws. Most* if not all factory-built guns have serial numbers and possibly test-fire results.
* There may be exceptions for some not-likely-to-be-used-in-a-crime reproduction-antiques and other special cases
unfortunate for privacy advocates (Score:2)
Another reason to use disposable phone numbers (Score:2)
Or a temporary phone number that redirects to your primary number
Phone numbers are becoming a primary tracking number.