Telegram is a Russian messaging app launched in 2013, which allows its users to message each other privately, as well as to join chatrooms to communicate with others. For a long time, the app was known to be an automatically encrypted, private, and unmonitored service – despite this not being the case unless its users choose to turn this option on themselves.
the app was known to be an automatically encrypted, private, and unmonitored service – despite this not being the case unless its users choose to turn this option on themselves.
Perhaps it should’ve been alarming that the country of the app’s origin – Russia, had temporarily banned the use of the app in 2018 over data protection concerns. More recently, the app has been linked to South Korea’s deepfake scandal, where thousands of men were found to be buying and producing deepfake pornographic images of women on Telegram channels. Despite executives of the app publicly apologising for the connection, it doesn’t take away from the numerous controversies and the irreversible damage done by users of the app throughout time.
Even more recently, however, Pavel Durov – the CEO of Telegram – has been found to have been using multiple citizenships and passports, even in countries which do not allow dual citizenships – UAE, Russia, France, Saint Kitts and Nevis. This has only added to the mystery of his arrest, and numerous critics, such as Matthew Hodgson (CEO of Element & co-founder of Matrix), have continued to further criticise the app and its CEOs for misleading customers about the app’s end-to-end encryption service, which, as they claim, is a hidden feature that people have to look for specifically in order to turn it on.
Durov’s legal representative has further spoken out that Telegram complies with European laws and norms, “including the Digital Services Act”. Many institutions, such as Russia and Elon Musk’s X (ex. Twitter), have condemned the arrest. Durov has been released from jail at the time of writing, and his lawyers continue to claim, “he has nothing to hide”, while his judicial inquiries continue and while Telegram continues to be used for numerous activities – from planning political protests to illegal sales of arms or drugs. Whereas Durov may have nothing to hide, his app and what it entails remain a mystery of its own.
