The American origins of Telegram

Interesting backstory. I didn't trust the app early on and now trust it less. Far as ISIS, only had to roll my eyes at the repeated pokes at Telegram playing a key role in ISIS and their "moral responsibility." Tell the U.S. military and covert ops community about moral responsibility so groups like ISIS develop less in the first place. Plus the bankers and oil traders funnelling the money with a lot less auditing than I get on a checking account or credit card. Or our friends in Saudi Arabia pushing hardcore doctrine and schools that creates the terrorist mindset. You don't media and government calling out for any of these to be disbanded, backdoored, or do a 180 on moral grounds.

Telegram can feel free to block ISIS channels to disrupt them. However, they're not the problem and shouldn't feel morally obligated to solve it. If Telegram blocks them, they just use another app. It's that simple. If anything, U.S. intelligence should be exploiting the presence of ISIS on an insecure app as a way to track and fight ISIS.

I've seen a lot of FUD about Telegram recently, and plenty of shady stuff that reeks of government pressure, including Facebook banning Telegram links from Whatsapp and banning its "official" FB page. This article rings a couple of alarm bells for me -- the subtext seems to imply both that Telegram is not to be trusted (stay away, vulnerable users!) and that they aren't doing enough to stop illegal usage (ban it!).

The crypto concerns are valid, though. Telegram needs a professional audit.

On one hand, I am happy that Telegram exists; its founding story, homebrew crypto, cute marketing and "not-American" position has made it a shit magnet for a lot of people that don't know what makes things secure, and are convinced by some Zuck-esque figure's charisma that he knows what's going on encryption-wise. It makes it a lightning rod for this type of press, attracts the idiotic bits of Daesh, and keeps this press-fueled, IC-backed anti-crypto heat off of other systems that actually work to keep people secure.

On the other hand, some others inevitably become collateral damage, using Telegram's (entirely) insecure defaults and thinking they have "secret" messages, or worse yet, enabling MTProto and believing they are safe in high-risk environments. Given this latest PR stunt, though, I think the benefits of Telegram's existence seem to outweigh its costs.