• bamboo@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    123
    ·
    8 months ago

    Blocking a large messaging platform because a minority of people are using it for piracy, of all things, seems extremely disproportionate

    • Immersive_Matthew@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      41
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      8 months ago

      And it is pointless too as there are countless other messaging apps that can be used and countless others ways that can be created to circumvent. Law makers clearly do not get tech.

    • ASaltPepper@lemmy.one
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      21
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      8 months ago

      I mean Telegram has been blocked in Russia before and it didn’t stop their operations for too long. At best now some engineer at telegram has one more ticket and things will be back to normal.

      • rottingleaf@lemmy.zip
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        9
        ·
        8 months ago

        and it didn’t stop their operations for too long

        You had to change proxies regularly, so it did. With some ISPs, at least.

        I think it wasn’t for really blocking it, just to test whether they can block it if they need it, during some big events.

    • Shinji_Ikari [he/him]@hexbear.net
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      18
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      8 months ago

      It’s not great if security is your main goal for organizing, but it has a better user experience than most chat apps. Especially if cross platform chatting is important to you.

      • Andromxda 🇺🇦🇵🇸🇹🇼@lemmy.dbzer0.com
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        7
        arrow-down
        5
        ·
        8 months ago

        I don’t understand why people like it so much, I tried it and found the experience pretty bad. Signal is a million times better and easier to use, and Matrix isn’t that hard to figure out either.

        • Shinji_Ikari [he/him]@hexbear.net
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          10
          arrow-down
          2
          ·
          8 months ago

          I started using it about 8-9 years ago at this point, back when the options were FB messenger or whatsapp. Both were trash and limited in comparison.

          I only use signal for work but I find the app clunky and unintuitive. Telegram, being a somewhat privacy nightmare, but not connected to a big data broker company, also gives me the ability to search through a decade of messages to find an old joke, a picture shared, etc.

          Telegram is simple enough that I can tell my aging gen x parents and apathetic zoomer siblings to install it and there’s nearly zero friction to them logging in and receiving messages. It solved the problem of being added to a new fucked up imessage groupchat every other week as an android user.

        • guts@lemmy.ml
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          11
          arrow-down
          4
          ·
          8 months ago

          Telegram is miles better in user experience than Signal.

    • Schlemmy@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      12
      arrow-down
      4
      ·
      8 months ago

      It’s the best app when it comes to functionality. It has it all.

        • Schlemmy@lemmy.ml
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          19
          arrow-down
          3
          ·
          edit-2
          8 months ago
          • You can schedule messages
          • Have supergroups, subgroups, broadcasts, admin roles in groups,…
          • Channels can be configured in various ways. For example, you can post messages and choose the type of previews links render.
          • You can add voting options to posts
          • Members of the channel can only reply in threads so the replies are bundled.
          • You can decide wheter new group members can view chat history or not.
          • Members can be muted.
          • Bots can be built withing the app
          • Chats can be arranged in folders *…

          I could go on.

          • Andromxda 🇺🇦🇵🇸🇹🇼@lemmy.dbzer0.com
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            4
            arrow-down
            7
            ·
            8 months ago

            Ok, I see. Telegram tries to combine Discord, WhatsApp and WeChat, but it isn’t a great replacement for either of them.

            Discord has groups, chanels, threaded conversations, allows you to mute people, great support for bots, folders, etc. Signal is much better for private chats though, it has a very secure encryption protocol and enables E2EE by default and is very focused on privacy in general. Btw Signal also allows scheduling messages. I tried Telegram for both groups/chanels and private chats and I found it really annoying to have my groups and channels in the same app as my normal conversations. Just use Signal and Discord/Matrix/Revolt.

            • Schlemmy@lemmy.ml
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              1
              ·
              8 months ago

              I get it. That’s why I use Plus messenger. It’s a better, more customisable UI. Private chats, groups and channels are on a different page, if you want it.

              Unfortunately I use Discord, WhatsApp, Signal, Element (Matrix) and SimpleX all combined because my contacts are spread out. Looking forward to secure interoperability.

    • Cover_czar@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      8 months ago

      Matrix is good for personal communications too The us companies made you to use phone numbers for chatting Id’s are convenient

      • Andromxda 🇺🇦🇵🇸🇹🇼@lemmy.dbzer0.com
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        8 months ago

        I mean, sure, you can use Matrix for personal chats. It’s perfectly secure, but it’s not as easy to use as Signal. For example, if I told my grandma to install Element and send me her Matrix ID, she would be really confused. Signal is very easy to use, and the user experience is basically the same as on mainstream platforms like WhatsApp. I also don’t think that the phone number requirement is a US thing, as Telegram also has it. Signal only requires phone numbers to prevent spam, but they recently introduced usernames, so you don’t have to give people your phone number in order for them to message you.

        • Kairos@lemmy.today
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          8 months ago

          Element is just a piece of shit. Matrix is fine for almost all use cases. If you actually need metadata protection use Session.

    • MrSoup@lemmy.zip
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      30
      ·
      8 months ago

      It indeed empowers common people by distributing full seasons of series all in one place in a somewhat user friendly way without “10 chicks in 10mt” popups.

      A bunch of my friends, who don’t even know how to install an adblocker, have a very rich catalog of things there.

      Also, it is more difficult for a telegram channel to be banned than a website.

      • jol@discuss.tchncs.de
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        8 months ago

        Sticker packs are a gateway drug to, well, drugs. Which you can buy on telegram too of course.

        • ladfrombrad 🇬🇧@lemdro.id
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          8 months ago

          :)

          I make my own thank you very much. Sticker packs are a right of passage to navigation on Telegram. We also have the gif game.

          I think we’ve lasted 20mins of replying in gifs to each other, in context. Is a very hard “game”.

    • bblfrnz@beehaw.org
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      8 months ago

      Actually, yes, there are a few groups with unique niche content that isn’t available anywhere else.

  • guts@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    17
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    8 months ago

    Good luck ban it, Telegram runs everywhere without playstore and with proxy.

  • HouseWolf@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    7
    ·
    edit-2
    8 months ago

    Truly Spain without the S

    My buddy in Spain says the block it pretty easier to get around at least.

    • Jrockwar@feddit.uk
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      19
      ·
      edit-2
      8 months ago

      This is one of the rare things where the Spanish left and right agree, for different reasons.

      Simplifying a lot:

      • The left generally supports culture, actors, theatre, writers, Spanish made movies. They see piracy as a threat to the earnings of those people.
      • The right has historically cut any sorts of subsidies to the “culture creators”, but they see piracy as a threat to the publishing, TV (…) industries.

      They both support SGAE, which translates cleanly to the General Society of Authors and Editors, who protects their interests by charging fees to everyone who dares look at copyrighted work.

      • You own a bar and you play TV, Radio, or Spotify? You have to pay SGAE.
      • You buy a computer, part of the money goes to SGAE.
      • You buy a blank CD, DVD, Hard Drive, you pay SGAE (because they know you will put copyrighted material there, and if you don’t, well, fuck you)

      It’s a fucked up system and I don’t know if things have changed in the past few years as I don’t live in Spain anymore. But it honestly feels like a prosecution of the population who is so evil and trying to destroy Spanish Culture.

      • Freeman@feddit.de
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        5
        ·
        8 months ago

        Tbh switzerland has a similar system to the SGAE, where there is a “hidden tax” on all devices that you can load with data. And in turn the downloading of media (with the exclusion of computerprograms and games) is legal. Only the upload of copyrighted material is forbidden.

        Not a bad system imo, the tax is so small that you dont really notice it so its a pretty consumer-friendly and piracy-friendly solution. Altho I assume the swiss government gets away with it because it would be too expensive to lobby/legal for a copyrightsholder-favoured system compared with the small amount of people (let alone pirate) who live here.

        • Sneezycat@sopuli.xyz
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          6
          ·
          8 months ago

          That’s different, we also have a “canon digital” which means you pay an extra tax on all copying and storing devices. But that has nothing to do with the SGAE, which is a corrupt organization that funnels money to their artist list, instead of giving it to the actual artists that are being played.

      • Hanrahan@slrpnk.net
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        8 months ago

        I’d actually agree with it IF they also didn’t bother harassing piracy. So fuck 'em until then.

        • Jrockwar@feddit.uk
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          6
          ·
          8 months ago

          Yeah, true. Charging a tax on downloaded copyrighted material can be kinda okay if you don’t actively chase it. It’s not right to charge people a penalty for doing something but then prevent them from doing it. You can’t have it both ways, if it’s not right you can chase it, but don’t make me pay for doing something I’m not allowed to do! That would be like having to preemptively pay traffic fines before you actually drive over the speed limit, just in case.

    • TyrantTW@kbin.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      10
      ·
      8 months ago

      They do, but this is coming from a right-dominated tribunal known to be extremely conservative and reactionary in nature.

    • Summzashi@lemmy.one
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      10
      arrow-down
      4
      ·
      8 months ago

      You dont have to boil down everything to “left vs right” especially not in Europe. Because if you do, blocking a chat app is by definition a leftist thing to do because of the government interference.

      Please keep the American team vs team culture away from Europe.

    • Ignacio@kbin.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      6
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      8 months ago

      What is the relationship between the government ideology and the court system? Both are independent from each other.

      • ladfrombrad 🇬🇧@lemdro.id
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        5
        ·
        8 months ago

        To be honest Telegram doesn’t ban private groups “for piracy” and only takes out public groups that receive a DMCA.

        I think the above user is pointing out a rather fun fact - if you’re in some of the many private groups where shit is shared freely…those wanting to ban it don’t like the fact that they can’t see in those private groups.

        Like, is there any evidence of private groups being monitored by media corps or their lackeys in gov?

        • rottingleaf@lemmy.zip
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          4
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          8 months ago

          This doesn’t make it secure for anything else. There are also plenty of private torrent trackers.

          • ladfrombrad 🇬🇧@lemdro.id
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            8 months ago

            Yeah, more my point is I was curious if Telegram has previously taken down private groups Vs public ones (I’ve seen a fair few of these obviously since they adhere to DMCA requests) but have never seen a private group taken down.

    • punkisundead [they/them]@slrpnk.net
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      12
      arrow-down
      4
      ·
      edit-2
      8 months ago

      Just use Signal if you want an easy, relatively privacy friendly and secure messenger.

      Telegram hands over data to goverments, is infested with spammers and scammers and its encryption is not end to end for group chat which lets Telegram access those chats.

      Edit: Telegram is great for lots of things like big groups, communities, piracy, drugs etc but its just not the place where you should expect secure communication.

      • turkishdelight@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        14
        arrow-down
        3
        ·
        8 months ago

        I’m not using Signal as long as Signal Foundation is based in the US. Also Signal is not on FDroid, so I can’t use it anyway.

          • Salix@sh.itjust.works
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            8 months ago

            Why would you need to use obtanium to get the Signal apk file from that link?

            You can just download the apk from that website and install it. The app can update itself.

              • Salix@sh.itjust.works
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                1
                ·
                8 months ago

                Huh, that’s strange. On my 3 Android devices, I downloaded the APK from the website, and it always auto-updates.

                It existed ever since they added the APK to their website as a compromise for people who don’t want to get Signal from the Play Store.

        • punkisundead [they/them]@slrpnk.net
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          5
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          8 months ago

          This might not be relevant because you have other reasons not to use Signal, but you can get android signal directly from their website and via aurora store (on fdroid)

          • turkishdelight@lemmy.ml
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            3
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            8 months ago

            It’s Signal Foundation’s hostility to open and non-Google platforms that is very disturbing.

        • Andromxda 🇺🇦🇵🇸🇹🇼@lemmy.dbzer0.com
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          6
          arrow-down
          2
          ·
          edit-2
          5 months ago

          But RusSSian/UAE-based Telegram is fine? 😂

          Also, it really doesn’t matter where Signal is based, as long as it’s client code is open source and it uses E2EE by default. Telegram doesn’t encrypt chats by default, and even if you enable ‘secret chats’ it uses a pretty weak encryption protocol.

          Btw the official version of Telegram isn’t available on F-Droid either, only a fork called Telegram-FOSS. You can get the exact same thing for Signal from a 3rd-party repo: https://www.twinhelix.com/apps/signal-foss/, or use Molly.

        • twig@lemmy.dbzer0.com
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          3
          ·
          8 months ago

          Signal releases their own self-updating apk on their site, and this release doesn’t use Google services for push notifications. There are legitimate reasons why publishers sometimes avoid f-droid.

          Also there’s Molly, which is a signal fork that allows database encryption; or Session, which doesn’t require a phone number for account registration and is decentralized. Both of these forks have repos that you can add to f-droid.

          I do understand the hesitance to use a platform that has its infrastructure in the US, but I will say that international compliance with the US is a problem even if the infrastructure is located elsewhere. Session is a really promising option, since it’s decentralized, and I’d love to see more people using it.

          • ReversalHatchery@beehaw.org
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            8 months ago

            It would be better even if they just hosted an F-droid repo for their app. If they don’t trust the f-droid organization with building the app, that’s fine I guess. But as I’m aware, they had said no to allf of what is f-droid.

    • Artyom@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      8
      arrow-down
      5
      ·
      8 months ago

      The CEO is a Russian, the company is based out of Dubai, and messages aren’t encrypted by default. In fact, only private messages can be encrypted, group messages cannot. Telegram is not a trustworthy platform and a champion for user privacy like most people think, Signal is what you’re looking for.

    • rottingleaf@lemmy.zip
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      4
      arrow-down
      6
      ·
      8 months ago

      WTF is this ignorant “I know what they want but I’m smarter” crap, if you don’t know how it works you know nothing, and “what they want” you get from news.

      I know of a few governments not trying to really. Like the Russian one.

      Read something about its internals before saying something as stupid.

      XMPP with OMEMO is secure (not for targeted attacks, in that case you’ll just get a trojan on your Android device via some unclosed vulnerability and finita la comedia, or rubber hose cryptanalysis will be applied).

  • moitoi@feddit.de
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    4
    arrow-down
    3
    ·
    8 months ago

    I hijack the post to ask for a telegram client suggestions?

    • zaknenou@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      edit-2
      8 months ago

      you didn’t specify your system. If android then there are regularly updated solutions on fdroid. On Linux I’m just using the flathub official package