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Russia Moves to Ban Telegram Encrypted Messaging Platform

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Russia appears to be following through on its threat last year to block access to the Telegram encrypted messaging platform.

The BBC reports today that the Roskomnadzor media regulator has begun legal proceedings to block the app in the country, after Dubai-based Telegram refused to comply with requests that it hand over the encryption keys.

Telegram was given a deadline of 4 April to hand over the keys, but the company has refused, explaining that the way the service is built means it has no access to them.
Russia's main security agency, the FSB, wants the keys so it can read messages and prevent future terror attacks in the country. In its court filing, Roskomnadzor said the legal action was related to the FSB request and Telegram's non-compliance with its legal requirements as a "distributor of information".
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Telegram's lawyer, Pavel Chikov, called the Russian attempt to block the app "groundless" and said the FSB's demand to access users' chat logs was "unconstitutional, baseless, which cannot be fulfilled technically and legally".

Telegram had a legal challenge to the demand dismissed in a Moscow court in March, but the platform creator Pavel Durov has said Telegram, which is widely used in Russia, will not "give up" the private data of its users.


Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Article Link: Russia Moves to Ban Telegram Encrypted Messaging Platform
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2018/04/06/russia-moves-to-ban-telegram-messaging-platform/
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Does this mean ВКонтакте (VKontakte) is next? I know that the VK app has been crippled because of Apple's TOS and we have to use Safari to get all the features.
 
Kajje said:
Better stay with Whatsapp. Rumours are that company is quite easy when it comes to privacy...
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WhatsApp is owned by Facebook. At this point, it’s compromised. Just like Skype after it was bought by Microsoft. It’s hard to trust any commercially available software really. Governments develop and build their own CPUs, hardware and software if they want to communicate securely these days.
 
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There have been lots of questions when it comes to the crypto security of Telegram (for those that care): https://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/11/23/homebrew_crypto_in_telegram_app/
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/11/23/homebrew_crypto_in_telegram_app/
With regards to WhatsApp as CJM mentioned they're literally owned by Facebook now. While the messages themselves are encrypted and supposedly secure - all the connection information (who you messaged and when...the real important stuff) is stored by Facebook who will gladly hand that over to whatever government is asking (probably sell it as well).

Signal seems to be a good secure messaging application without the issues Telegram is constantly flagged with.
 
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Jimmy James said:
First the People's Republic of China.
Then the People's Republic of Russia.
Next the Peoples Republic of the UK and USA.
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That's 'Peoples Republic of trump', or more commonly known as trumpistan.
[doublepost=1523025563][/doublepost]
GermanSuplex said:
I’ve been hearing that a lot of people are saying Trump supports this. Lots of support, great support.
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He'll support anything that attacks the people at the bottom... Ironic he's the largest bottom feeder.
 
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CJM said:
WhatsApp is owned by Facebook. At this point, it’s compromised. Just like Skype after it was bought by Microsoft. It’s hard to trust any commercially available software really. Governments develop and build their own CPUs, hardware and software if they want to communicate securely these days.
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He was missing the /s obviously.
 
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Keep in mind the US congress and intelligence services (including the FBI) have been staging a pr campaign for the last two years to force the exact same scenario (handing over encryption keys or building a way to circumvent encryption).

I get Russia is the evil of the month, but take note of who speaks out against Russia’s demand and how seamlessly they’ll transition to backing the US version of this same policy.
 
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NT1440 said:
Keep in mind the US congress and intelligence services (including the FBI) have been staging a pr campaign for the last two years to force the exact same scenario (handing over encryption keys or building a way to circumvent encryption).

I get Russia is the evil of the month, but take note of who speaks out against Russia’s demand and how seamlessly they’ll transition to backing the US version of this same policy.
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True, but with the FBI, it’s a little more transparent and probably won’t happen.

I don’t agree with the FBI on that request, but with some other countries, there is no such process. Hopefully Putin doesn’t drag Trump down much farther...
 
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Sasparilla said:
There have been lots of questions when it comes to the crypto security of Telegram (for those that care): https://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/11/23/homebrew_crypto_in_telegram_app/
With regards to WhatsApp as CJM mentioned they're literally owned by Facebook now. While the messages themselves are encrypted and supposedly secure - all the connection information (who you messaged and when...the real important stuff) is stored by Facebook who will gladly hand that over to whatever government is asking (probably sell it as well).

Signal seems to be a good secure messaging application without the issues Telegram is constantly flagged with.
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I switched from Telegram to Signal because Telegram doesn’t default to end to end encryption for messages. You’d have to start a secret chat in order to do so. Plus there is a lot of uncertainty in their security. Signal is always end to end encryption and always recommended by the experts who know way more than I do about this.
 
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Oz. said:
I hope that Signal will get more popular in the future, if you want privacy Signal is the way to go. It has even a feature for problems like this, censorship circumvention...
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How does the app developer make money? Donations? Crowd funding?
 
Swift said:
Zuck isn't going to poison you or put polonium in your soup.
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No, but he's obsessed with connecting people. Which might include people who would, like that creepy stalker ex so many people complain about.

I don't have any creepy stalker exes to worry about. But there was one creepy stalker coworker. I never dated him, though I think he thought I agreed to marry him and honeymoon on a moon of Jupiter because I once deigned to tell him to have a nice weekend. He seemed to think the same of two other ladies at work so I guess we would have been his harem. Gross. There goes my appetite for lunch.

Anyway, there's been some weirdly clingy friends I don't mind leaving buried in the sands of time. But Zuck wants to make sure we can all find each other. Ewwwwww. Go away Zuck.
 
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