Wasn't Telegram restricted in Russia? I'm surprised Belarus can't turn it off whenever it wants as well.
Telegram messaging app proves crucial to Belarus protests
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Re: Telegram messaging app proves crucial to Belarus protests
#42It's never "the work of a long-preparing revolutionnary crowd" revolution, but always a "latest fashionable technology" revolution. Tech propaganda at its best.
Long-preparing revolutionaries need a way to communicate and coordinate with a bunch of people who suddenly see things their way. The government often tries to jam the lines of communication, so some alternate form of communication is often critical.
Re: Telegram messaging app proves crucial to Belarus protests
#43Earlier quoted context omitted.
CIA encourages lots of friendly articles about social disruptions they've planned and funded. It seems likely they didn't plan BLM and related recent American protests, but definitely they are behind anything going on in Belarus.
You should be on thorazine.
Thanks!
Re: Telegram messaging app proves crucial to Belarus protests
#44Should the revolution fail, the digital trail left by these messages will give the government everything they need to hunt down every last activist.
We saw it with the Green Revolution in Iran. We've seen it several times since.
So long as messages are not encrypted, messaging apps are much more naturally suited as tools of oppression than tools of revolution.
Re: Telegram messaging app proves crucial to Belarus protests
#45Re: Telegram messaging app proves crucial to Belarus protests
#46Wasn't Telegram restricted in Russia? I'm surprised Belarus can't turn it off whenever it wants as well.
They tried to block it but didn't really succeed. It continued working although with some glitches.
Re: Telegram messaging app proves crucial to Belarus protests
#47It's never "the work of a long-preparing revolutionnary crowd" revolution, but always a "latest fashionable technology" revolution. Tech propaganda at its best.
Are you similarly critical of discussions about how ubiquitous camera phones have changed the civil rights movement? Technology is only a tool, and is only as good as what people actually do with it. But it can be a crucial tool that changes everything.
You're not disagreeing with OP's point that this is "tech propaganda at its best."
Same logic would apply if, say, a camera company had tried to brand Selma.
Re: Telegram messaging app proves crucial to Belarus protests
#48Considering that the app has been created by Russians (albeit ones who claim to oppose the current government of Russia), and it is popular mostly in countries that surround Russia, this is not surprising at all that it's the default choice for young people in Belarus. Telegram is a strong indicator of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_world these days.
You forget to mention the desktop and mobile apps both are open source, so anyone can build their own network.
I have never seen anyone actually doing that. The popularity of Telegram consists 100% of the popularity of its own network.
Re: Telegram messaging app proves crucial to Belarus protests
#49Earlier quoted context omitted.
Compared to WhatsApp, they do have access to all messages from every person (except for the few people using secret chats) and group so I'd not be very surprised if they started to mine that data somehow if they really want the money.
Compared to WhatsApp that is owned by a massive megacorp that bought it for over $10bn and that has already tried to start mining metadata from it I would say Telegram still has its advantages. (FWIW: I prefer Signal.)
Prefer Signal myself too. It's a bit hard to switch over from WhatsApp and tried to use it at least with my spouse. One feature that Telegram and WhatsApp miss, is being able to send yourself a message. On Signal you can do this and it's very convenient for taking notes, sending passwords (laptop phone) and for saving bookmarks. I used to share interesting bookmarks from HN to my email, but that quickly got cumbersome to sort out.
Re: Telegram messaging app proves crucial to Belarus protests
#50It's never "the work of a long-preparing revolutionnary crowd" revolution, but always a "latest fashionable technology" revolution. Tech propaganda at its best.
Long-preparing revolutionaries need a way to communicate and coordinate with a bunch of people who suddenly see things their way. The government often tries to jam the lines of communication, so some alternate form of communication is often critical.
Indeed, from TFA:
...authorities shut off the internet, leaving Belarusians with almost no access to independent online news outlets or social media and protesters seemingly without a leader. That’s where Telegram — which often remains available despite internet outages, touts the security of messages shared in the app and has been used in other protest movements — came in. Some of its channels helped unconnected, scattered rallies mature into well-coordinated action.