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Telegram messaging app proves crucial to Belarus protests

latimes.com

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Re: Telegram messaging app proves crucial to Belarus protests

#181

Post by _-david-_ »

jetzzz wrote: post #136
HPsquared wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair though, Telegram users aren't exactly an unbiased sample.

Official election results give Tikhanovskaya 500k votes, Telegram poll - 1M votes, 2x more.

We don't know how many people who voted in the Telegram poll actually voted. Maybe only a quarter of the people in the Telegram poll actually voted.

Its possible that some of the people in the Telegram poll are not eligible to vote (due to age or whatever).

There could be other issues like people changing who they voted for in the election after previously voting in Telegram.

Re: Telegram messaging app proves crucial to Belarus protests

#182

Post by sam_lowry_ »

democracy wrote: post #86

Actually there are reports that riot police was specifically looking at ones telegram channels to decide on the degree of your immediate punishment (yes, old school batons). And it was easily decrypted (phone unlocked) with a threat by the cops. I am in Belarus at the moment and can confirm telegram was not available without vpns/proxy just like any other resource. And why wouldn't it be?

This is why many protesters had kill swithes on their devices to whipe them out in case they are arrested.

Re: Telegram messaging app proves crucial to Belarus protests

#183

Post by phre4k »

MrVitaliy wrote: post #141
HPsquared wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair though, Telegram users aren't exactly an unbiased sample.

There is no faith that the official polls use less bias data, or any data, really.

There is no faith that the Telegram polls use less bias data, or any data, really.

Re: Telegram messaging app proves crucial to Belarus protests

#184

Post by shawnz »

literallycancer wrote: post #145
shawnz wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Telegram provides, at best, equal security and ease-of-use to previously existing solutions like Signal and Whatsapp, and in many cases worse security. Telegram didn't do anything to make this kind of technology more accessible or available. So, the fact that it happens to be a popular solution for encrypted chat right now doesn't really speak to its necessity for any revolution like you and the article seem to be im…

Show me a Signal channel with 2 million people in it. Even if it's only writeable by the channel owner. The adversary in their case is mostly limited to beating up random people and picking on those that take a public stand against the regime. Turns out it's more important that it works at all and not whether the security is perfect.

Show me an E2E encrypted Telegram channel with 2 million people in it, or it's not a fair comparison. There are lots of unencrypted social media apps which can support groups of 2 million, just like Telegram.

Re: Telegram messaging app proves crucial to Belarus protests

#185

Post by dalbasal »

HPsquared wrote: post #123
diimdeep wrote: post #118

Telegram created Belarus language public channel. And posted poll to vote for new president with some clever restrictions. Anyone can vote, but you can't choose options with candidates if your phone number is not Balarusian. "I am not from Belarus" is only available poll option to make your vote if your phone number is not Balarusian. There is currently 736'000 votes with that option. Telegram poll https://t.me/s/tel…

To be fair though, Telegram users aren't exactly an unbiased sample.

> Telegram users aren't exactly an unbiased sample

It's not quite a Telegram problem, voters in a protest poll are not an unbiased sample. This is why elections where one side denies the legitimacy of an election "invalid," in the "we all accept the results" sense.

Call it it petition, protest or public declaration. In that regard,the numbers are meaningful.

Re: Telegram messaging app proves crucial to Belarus protests

#186

Post by postmodernbrute »

shawnz wrote: post #76
AnimalMuppet wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Telegram provides, at best, equal security and ease-of-use to previously existing solutions like Signal and Whatsapp, and in many cases worse security. Telegram didn't do anything to make this kind of technology more accessible or available. So, the fact that it happens to be a popular solution for encrypted chat right now doesn't really speak to its necessity for any revolution like you and the article seem to be im…

Why do you consider Signal & WhatsApp, but not Telegram, to be the acceptable “pre-existing” solution? Because you are used to them in the West?

Re: Telegram messaging app proves crucial to Belarus protests

#187

Post by sam_lowry_ »

Arubis wrote: post #22
aborsy wrote: post #14

Why not Signal? It’s the way to go as far as messaging apps are concerned.

My recollection (can someone verify?) is that Telegram continues to function in limited-connectivity environments, making it a good fit for situations where a state actor is limiting network access.

I can confirm ;-)

Re: Telegram messaging app proves crucial to Belarus protests

#188

Post by Udik »

EGreg wrote: post #150
soufron wrote: post #10

It's never "the work of a long-preparing revolutionnary crowd" revolution, but always a "latest fashionable technology" revolution. Tech propaganda at its best.

I remember when Arab Spring was blamed on social media and Google Then Moscow had a giant demonstration on Red Square and that’s right around the time Putin blinked and started cracking down on such platforms and free speech. Of course, for those who remember, Telegram was started by Pavel Durov, the “Zuckerberg of Russia” who refused to give out details of VKontakte users, and the mail.ru conglomerate took his compa…

> I remember when Arab Spring was blamed on social media and Google

There's a pretty big and well known country that is blaming the election of its president on interference of another country through social media. It seems pretty credible the same social media can have promoted protests in more unstable countries.

Re: Telegram messaging app proves crucial to Belarus protests

#189

Post by sam_lowry_ »

robjan wrote: post #125
robertfw wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Matrix really does seem like the ideal future platform to build on, I've started poking around it and really like what I see. Does anyone with more experience want to chime in on what they've found using it?

I don't think matrix can scale to hundreds of thousands of users in one channel at the moment.

@nexta_live, the main channel for Belarusian protesters has well over 2 mln subscribers.

Re: Telegram messaging app proves crucial to Belarus protests

#190

Post by sam_lowry_ »

kome wrote: post #117
zzz61831 wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sort of, there is pseudoanonimity layer in Telegram that doesn't show your phone number to others, so if you can be reasonably sure that Telegram isn't going to give you up to the police of your country - your privacy can be preserved. While Signal literally identifies contacts via phone numbers and there is no mass communication features anyway, so it's both less private and less useful for such purposes.

> Signal literally identifies contacts via phone numbers that's so stupid. why people here keeps arguing that Signal crypto is safer when its architecture is SO unsafe?

Because they are NSA spooks?
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