Russia bans Telegram app; Founder responds with "Privacy is not for Sale"

[Ink]

Content source

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/13/world/europe/russia-telegram-encryption.html

A Moscow court cleared the way on Friday for the government to ban Telegram, the messaging app, over its failure to give Russian security services the ability to read users’ encrypted messages.

Roskomnadzor, the Russian communications and technology watchdog, had asked the court for the authority to block the app, and for the ban to take immediate effect. It took the court all of 18 minutes to grant the request, after scheduling the hearing just one day before. Telegram had ordered its lawyers to skip the hearing in protest of the hurried process.

The ban puts the Kremlin in a slightly awkward position because Telegram is widely used by government agencies, including by President Vladimir V. Putin’s press office.

Telegram Statement: t.me/durov/76

"The power that local governments have over IT corporations is based on money. At any given moment, a government can crash their stocks by threatening to block revenue streams from its markets and thus force these companies to do strange things (remember how last year Apple moved iCloud servers to China).

At Telegram, we have the luxury of not caring about revenue streams or ad sales. Privacy is not for sale, and human rights should not be compromised out of fear or greed."

 

[Deleted member 65228]

Good on Telegram

 

[codswollip]

Still there is Telegram's proprietary encryption algo. So caution due.

 

[Arequire]

Good on Telegram. Sadly their nicely worded statement is undermined by their refusal to enable E2E encryption by default and continued use of their ridiculous homemade crypto.

 

[Deleted member 65228]

Sadly their nicely worded statement is undermined by their refusal to enable E2E encryption by default and continued use of their ridiculous homemade crypto

I might be wrong but I think they use HTTP as well? I haven't used Telegram in a while so I cannot remember. If you use it could you let me know if it isn't the case?

 

[Arequire]

I might be wrong but I think they use HTTP as well? I haven't used Telegram in a while so I cannot remember. If you use it could you let me know if it isn't the case?

I haven't used it in a while either (around a year, give or take a few months) but as far as I remember, yeah, they use HTTP unless you enable E2E yourself, and if you do that you lose a ton of functionality.

It's insane to me that they're allowed market Telegram as a private messenger.

 

[Sunshine-boy]

use HTTP unless you

It's HTTPS.

k they use HTTP as well

All HTTPS+Secret chat(end to end encryption)but not for the desktop version and only mobile phone.they have their own crypto! if it was broken my government and Russia wouldn't block it!they blocked it cuz the telegram crypto isn't broken(can't decrypt it)

 

[Arequire]

It's HTTPS.

Ah. That's good. It never used to be HTTPS so thanks for clarifying.

 

[CyberTech]

Almost people use Whatsapp then that, im glad we dont use that..

 

[Deleted member 65228]

Almost people use Whatsapp then that, im glad we dont use that..

You can see people tweeting things like "Deleted Facebook and use Instagram and WhatsApp instead now, they are much more secure and safer #DeleteFacebook" (along those lines) except Facebook own both Instagram and WhatsApp.

Skype is another crap one, I bet it passes through the NSA servers. No wonder it slowed right down.

 

[Arequire]

You can see people tweeting things like "Deleted Facebook and use Instagram and WhatsApp instead now, they are much more secure and safer #DeleteFacebook" (along those lines) except Facebook own both Instagram and WhatsApp.

Skype is another crap one, I bet it passes through the NSA servers. No wonder it slowed right down.

A Majority of Americans Don't Know Facebook Owns Instagram
Probably the majority outside America too. Same with WhatsApp no doubt.

 

[CyberTech]

You can see people tweeting things like "Deleted Facebook and use Instagram and WhatsApp instead now, they are much more secure and safer #DeleteFacebook" (along those lines) except Facebook own both Instagram and WhatsApp.

Skype is another crap one, I bet it passes through the NSA servers. No wonder it slowed right down.

Ah i see lol what should we do without WhatsApp? Well here in the country everyone use it because its very important as business something like this of course its a useful message app but too bad fb bought both of them so stupid! i really hate it Whatsapp founders shouldn't do that.


What about Imo message? it's good video call..

 

[CyberTech]

A Majority of Americans Don't Know Facebook Owns Instagram
Probably the majority outside America too. Same with WhatsApp no doubt.

I read it for later thanks!

 

[Deleted member 65228]

i really hate it Whatsapp founders shouldn't do that.

To be fair they were doing what everyone else would have done IMO. They cashed out while they had the opportunity because opportunities come and go and there's no guarantee anyone else would have given them the same opportunity.

I don't blame them at all. If I owned WhatsApp and was offered millions or more would I accept? Of course. Especially after being in development for 8+ years, constantly working, etc. Not to mention the app was free (I am not sure how they got their income either, I do not recall advertisements when I used it in 2013 I think), so there's that too as to why selling was positive for them.

 

[Arequire]

Not to mention the app was free (I am not sure how they got their income either, I do not recall advertisements when I used it in 2013 I think)

It used to have an annual subscription of $0.99.

To be fair they were doing what everyone else would have done IMO. They cashed out while they had the opportunity because opportunities come and go and there's no guarantee anyone else would have given them the same opportunity.

True. I get that. I'd love to be set-up for life and never have to work again, and I honestly can't say that if I owned WhatsApp at the time that I wouldn't take the deal if it was offered to me. Unfortunately the side effect of that would be that I should be labelled as a shortsighted liar sold out his user base to an advertising platform.
Right after Facebook bought WhatsApp, the founder did an interview. This is what he said:

I want to make sure you understand how deeply I value the principle of private communication,

The fact that we couldn’t speak freely without the fear that our communications would be monitored by KGB is in part why we moved to the United States when I was a teenager,

If partnering with Facebook meant that we had to change our values, we wouldn’t have done it. Instead, we are forming a partnership that would allow us to continue operating independently and autonomously.

Speculation to the contrary isn’t just baseless and unfounded, it’s irresponsible. It has the effect of scaring people into thinking we’re suddenly collecting all kinds of new data. That’s just not true, and it’s important to us that you know that

[Insert Facepalm emoji here]

 

[Faybert]

Roskomnadzor, Russia's telecommunications watchdog, banned today over 1.8 million IP addresses belonging to Amazon and Google's cloud infrastructure.

The following IP blocks have been reported as banned in Russia at the ISP level. The IP ranges account for 1,835,008 IPs.
52.58.0.0/15
18.196.0.0/15
18.194.0.0/15
18.184.0.0/15
35.156.0.0/14
35.192.0.0/12

The move to ban these IP blocks is a response to Telegram moving some of its infrastructure to Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud servers over the weekend.

Roskomnadzor banned the Telegram instant messaging client inside Russia's border on Friday, April 13, after Telegram refused to hand over customers' encryption keys to the FSB, Russia's main intelligence service.

By moving servers to Amazon and Google servers, Telegram was able to skirt the initial ban and provide service to Russian users over the weekend.

Many users ridiculed Roskomnadzor's decision on social media, and for good reasons, as the move to mass-ban so many IP addresses had secondary repercussions, as it also blocked many legitimate web services. Users reported many online games, mobile apps, and cryptocurrency services going dark over the course of the day.
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Russia Bans 1.8 Million Amazon and Google IPs in Attempt to Block Telegram