So you need to be thinking about how to continuing protecting people by making the service accessible *even after the block.*Īnd this is where we start getting to my core concerns. You can’t keep an independent, destabilizing service from being blocked in authoritarian regimes, you can only delay it.
Moreover, Snowden questioned why Telegram still encourages “dangerous cloud messaging instead of secret chats.” He also advised Telegram to come up with features that may help the people by keeping the service accessible “even after the block” by authoritarian regimes. But this is unsustainable, which he should know: after all, he was forced from Russia for not doing enough favors at Vkontakte.
If we presume is acting morally, this might sound like an argument for Telegram to do whatever they can to keep their Iranian presence alive. Snowden then tweeted to Durov and reminded him of what happened when he was forced from Russia for not doing enough favors at Vkontakte (VK), a Russian-based online social media and social networking service founded by Durov. Should Telegram shut one Iranian channel down to preserve access to all the others? Most would say “of course.” It’s more important to keep that tether to their ecosystem alive, right? They’re in something close to a monopoly position, where the fallback for many is unsafe SMS. And here’s where we start getting into complexity. Today we saw the communications minister demand a big channel be shut down. On the other, it means will face increasing pressure over time to collaborate with the Iranian government’s demands for this or that. The latest example of it is the suspension of “amadnews” Telegram channel. Snowden, on the other hand, highlighted the fact that due to its public channels the company will face pressure from the Iranian government. Be careful – there are lines one shouldn’t cross. If confirmed, we'll have to block such a channel, regardless of its size and political affiliation.Īnd then came the suspension order from the CEO:Ī Telegram channel (amadnews) started to instruct their subscribers to use Molotov cocktails against police and got suspended due to our “no calls for violence” rule. It happened after Mohammad-Javad Azari Jahromi, Iranian telecommunications minister, tweeted Pavel Durov, the CEO, and founder of Telegram.Ĭalls for violence are prohibited by the Telegram rules. Competing services are often blocked, but Telegram makes concessions to avoid this (like setting up local CDNs ).Įarlier today, Telegram shut down a channel that called for “violent protests” against the Iranian government. Its “public channels” are an important source of news for many low-tech users. He then gave a brief background of Telegram in Iran due to the sudden political unrest and protests against the government and how the authorities can use Telegram app to track user conversations for political advantages since Iran has more than 40 million people using the app.īackground: has a special position in Iran. Some presumed I just don’t understand how channels work.
Many don’t seem to understand why I object to having unsafe, censorable public channels in an app that is promoted as a secure messenger. According to Telegram FAQ page, “Channels are a tool for broadcasting public messages to large audiences.” In his first tweet, Snowden wondered why an app like Telegram has unsafe and censorable public channels when it claims to provide secure messenger service.
Telegram messenger for blackberry series#
But today, citing the tense situation in Iran, the whistleblower has posted a series of tweets explaining why Telegram Messenger app is unsafe and it can be secured with little effort. In fact, NSA documents leaked by him showed how Microsoft handed over plain text Skype chats of users to the agency. For years, the ex-NSA (National Security Agency) whistleblower Edward Snowden has been raising awareness about so-called secure messaging applications or programs and publically criticised apps like Skype, Google Allo, and Telegram.
0 kommentar(er)
