I use Telegram, but I've never really used channels. I know they exist, and you can browse local ones, and I've looked at some, and they're all shit.

I mainly use it as an alternative to WhatsApp and similar because I use an iPhone (primarily) and my wife uses Android. So she can't do iMessage, and I didn't want to join Facebook or use some corpo-owned messenger. At the time (so this was like 7-9 years ago), Telegram was appealing, so my wife and I both downloaded it.

I get porn bots contacting me offering to sell me stuff. I block them. I figure it's a scam at worst, or at best it's a young lady who isn't being trafficked trying to make a buck selling me what I can find online for free. Either way, I'm not interested.

I've heard tell of Telegram channels for illegal porn and piracy, but I've never actually seen one (of either). All the news around Telegram is kinda funny to me because my wife and I just use it to talk to each other.

Maybe we should move to Signal? But the problems people cite with Telegram with regards to privacy don't affect us. We're just a couple older adults using it for texting and sharing pics (not dirty, just at full rez, unlike what texting used to offer).

researchers being snitches? it's more likely than you think!

ahh fucking assholes...

it's pretty obvious telegram is a honeypot of some sort but it's still pretty damn useful so i keep using it for piracy stuff

if it works for you and you're happy there's not much issue with continuing its usage. however imo it's a pretty obvious honeypot, so gotta keep in mind anything you chat there can also be seen by the FSB/NSA whatever

signal is very privacy oriented and not as flexible as telegram. chat history, backup, multi device could provide worse UX. also their desktop client is electron unlike telegram that has nice native programs. (and this is just my opinion, but i can't trust them for not being a honeypot because of their phone number requirement and extensive AWS usage..)

i'd choose XMPP or something if i were to move, but i still use telegram too..

I don't really rate Telegram I did keep hearing about this though and was starting to get curious enough to look into it.

Guess there's no point now.

Surely there must be a reason Russian dissidents trust it though? It's owned by an anti Putin Russian oligarch, right?

one who is in constant trouble with the law and is very happy to work with Five Eyes countries to save his own neck. I see enough stories about supposed private telegram channels being infiltrated to keep me off the platform. there's only two kinds of people doing illegal shit on telegram, idiots and snitches.

Tbh, I don't get why dissidents use Telegram when Signal is literally right there

Or simpleX. Or Cwtch. Or Briar. Or I2P.

tbh feels similar to how chinese people in foreign countries continue to use wechat

afaik like half the telegram devteam is russian or smth

It is amazing for research papers, you can even request papers.

pretty damn useful so i keep using it for piracy stuff

This is the kind of behaviour which will further boost telegrams presence as a valid source of information - which is not.

In reality it has wild history to the point where people got jailed by telegrams aid with the authorities. New people will essentially be manipulated that this is a trustworthy application.

As (technically) a Russian dissident, the majority of Russian dissidents are idiots. See: support for Navalniy, support for Gaza genocide. FWIW I'm an idiot too.

Telegram is not private at all, it is not encrypted by default, and there are likely ways for three-letter agencies to leak your identity even without full cooperation from Telegram LLC.

While it's true that Durov is somewhat anti-Putin, that doesn't help you as (likely) a citizen of a western country. Durov will clearly cooperate with western governments on their demands, he holds French citizenship and regularly travels to Europe.

As the other commenter said, not much point moving to Signal, while it is at least E2E encrypted it also suffers from potential privacy issues. I would say if you have to move, move to XMPP or (maybe) Matrix.

Why would anyone leak their identity to Telegram when a certain RUssian torrent TRACKER forum ORGanization is right there?

not sure wdym with "valid source of information" or "trustworthy application" because i said neither in the comment above.. in fact i explicitly mentioned "pretty obvious telegram is a honeypot"

You explicitly mentioned this, alright. But you still use it, because.. Its "pretty darn useful". Now I'm trying to understand, but your statement is a bit convoluted as the conclusion essentially puts the app in a good light. Implicitly youre telling a different story.

guess i should say i trust it as much as any other sketchy piracy site. i get what you mean

rutracker, 1337x, various bitTorrent searchers... And finally, for something that isn't usually on torrents, there's fmhy.pages.dev giving a whole list of possible directions to look at. Telegram would be the last place i'd pirate from. It's a fucking messenger, and i'd rather keep it that way.

Imo telegram and signal are not the same kind of service. One can handle rooms with dozens of hundreds of people in a room. The other is more for private one on one conversations.

And well yeah the security is much better on Signal.