Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Telegram messaging app proves crucial to Belarus protests

latimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

341–350 of 557 posts

Re: Telegram messaging app proves crucial to Belarus protests

#341

Post by ardy42 »

d0mine wrote: post #204
huhtenberg wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

2.3M voted in a poll, 59% from Belorussian phone numbers. That's 1.36 M or 17% of the eligible voter pool. 51% of these are for the secondary candidate. This doesn't reconcile with the official numbers regardless of how you massage them.

Sample size is not everything "Literary Digest poll was also one of the largest and most expensive polls ever conducted, with a sample size of around 2.4 million people" The large size by itself does not guarantee correctness https://www.math.upenn.edu/~deturck/m170/wk4/lecture/case1.h...

> Sample size is not everything "Literary Digest poll was also one of the largest and most expensive polls ever conducted, with a sample size of around 2.4 million people" The large size by itself does not guarantee correctness https://www.math.upenn.edu/~deturck/m170/wk4/lecture/case1.h...

But isn't that really only the case when you're trying to use statistical inference to generalize from a sample? It seems like the right way to think about this poll is as a direct measurement of a floor of support for the challenger (others have said that is >2x the her official vote count), and the right statistical question is to ask is what's the probability that the official results are true given that floor.

Re: Telegram messaging app proves crucial to Belarus protests

#342

Post by pfortuny »

d0mine wrote: post #204
huhtenberg wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

2.3M voted in a poll, 59% from Belorussian phone numbers. That's 1.36 M or 17% of the eligible voter pool. 51% of these are for the secondary candidate. This doesn't reconcile with the official numbers regardless of how you massage them.

Sample size is not everything "Literary Digest poll was also one of the largest and most expensive polls ever conducted, with a sample size of around 2.4 million people" The large size by itself does not guarantee correctness https://www.math.upenn.edu/~deturck/m170/wk4/lecture/case1.h...

When a sample is greater than the census, you’ve got a problem.

With the census.

Re: Telegram messaging app proves crucial to Belarus protests

#343

Post by Thorentis »

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…

Sounds like a great INFOOP opportunity by a foreign power to further sow discontent.

Re: Telegram messaging app proves crucial to Belarus protests

#344

Post by tryptophan »

asutekku wrote: post #336
sneak wrote: post #330

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I only see praise for Telegram, which is confusing, because it is unsafe snake oil. Don’t use Telegram.

It’s no more unsafe as using whatsapp or some other similar service. To be fair, if most of my relatives would not use whatsapp, i would’ve turned 100% telegram already.

People get super morally-puristic when it comes to chat app security for some reason.

Telegram is no worse (or even might be better) than email, your banking website, facebook, your credit card, etc...

It's 100% better than SMS though, which is completely unencrypted.

I'd bet that for most people its an upgrade in security and privacy.

Re: Telegram messaging app proves crucial to Belarus protests

#346

Post by fuzxi »

mercacona wrote: post #274
mercacona wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, that’s what their website claims. But it isn’t.

Why are the people is downvoting me? Did Durov create a non-profit or a foundation lately? Telegram it’s currently a business and Durov keeps the control...

>Why are the people is downvoting me?

Because you made a definitive claim without providing any evidence, or even your line of reasoning.

Re: Telegram messaging app proves crucial to Belarus protests

#347

Post by avodonosov »

rectang wrote: post #44

Should 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.

People are not hiding. The news sites forums, where you need to validate your account with phone number, are full of anti-government comments.

Also, the article is not about people exchanging messages, it's about telegram channels read by many.

Re: Telegram messaging app proves crucial to Belarus protests

#348

Post by jacobwilliamroy »

dalbasal wrote: post #191

It's disappointing that this kind of thing is possible in relation to the sophistication and competence of a regime. Or maybe I should say that 2020 is a disappointment, from a 2005 perspective. The internet was supposed to be free. The ability to use it for political change democratically was supposed to be built in, innate. This wasn't supposed to be a rare and fortunate blip, a soon-to-be-closed loophole in an app…

I'm surprised that Telegram is proudly proclaiming itself to be sponsoring regime change in a foreign country. Seems kinda... gauche? I mean, that's still frowned upon right? Is my mindset antiquated?

Re: Telegram messaging app proves crucial to Belarus protests

#349

Post by godelski »

y-c-o-m-b wrote: post #325
newscracker wrote: post #271

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I think they are not in touch with the needs of people. Sadly, this has been true of Signal for a long time. Signal marches only to its own beat, and is quite slow to address real needs of most people.

I don't know why you're getting down-voted. It's an accurate statement that many loyal Signal users can attest to. Signal has been my primary messaging app for years now, but that's my main issue with them outside of group MMS issues still being problematic all these years. Their slow response or lack of care was especially apparent after the huge outcry over constant nag notifications for verifying PIN, setting a pr…

I do think that things like emojis and the (now fixed) link previews do help with adoption. But I think there is another and more compelling adoption method given the current state of the world: privacy and security. The reason people are turning to telegram is because they think it is secure. Signal will never gain mass adoption without good groups. And honestly, they probably need channels too. If it had both those things then all these protestors would turn towards Signal. After all, isn't that why they get funding from the US government? To "enable" democracy in other countries?

Re: Telegram messaging app proves crucial to Belarus protests

#350

Post by jhasse »

godelski wrote: post #209
Mediterraneo10 wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Signal Protocol[0] is based on OTR, a technology which had already seen a number of implementations and informed scrutiny by the time Signal came along. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signal_Protocol

Also an important aspect is that it is open sourced, meaning others can audit it. I'm a little untrusting of people that say "trust me" but also "no, you can't look at it." (unless there is a good reason to hide it, which in this case I do not believe there is)

MTproto is also open source.
Post reply on HN