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Mysteries of Telegram Data Centers (2022)

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Re: Mysteries of Telegram Data Centers (2022)

#21

Post by tobinfekkes »

Anon1096 wrote: post #16
AntronX wrote: post #11

DC in Miami, explains why Telegram app is snappy fast for me. I notice similar speed improvement with Meta and other big tech apps when I'm on the west coast. I guess latency matters when your app is making tons of requests.

Most of big tech's major data centers are in Loudoun County, VA on the east coast not the west coast. It's centrally located to be great latency for the east coast and OK latency for west coast and Europe. Plus a friendly regulatory environment and lots of existing DCs (AWS us-east-1, Azure East US 1/2) If you're feeling any better latency on the west coast it's more likely to be placebo than real.

On the contrary, Big tech famously has plenty of data centers on the west coast:

• Quincy, WA (Microsoft)

• The Dalles, Oregon (Google)

• Prineville, Oregon (Facebook, Apple)

• Hillsboro, Oregon (Cloudflare, others)

• Boardman, Oregon (AWS)

Re: Mysteries of Telegram Data Centers (2022)

#22

Post by overallduka »

hhh wrote: post #6

something smells suspicious about this kind of data routing

The Lex Fridman podcast episode with Pavel Durov is worth listening to. Their servers are built to be very secure — of course, it would be different for others, and they use some clever tricks

Re: Mysteries of Telegram Data Centers (2022)

#23

Post by bflesch »

_ink_ wrote: post #14

They claim that they store user data on different servers in different jurisdictions so it becomes more difficult for authorities to gain access [1]. Maybe that's true and it has something to do with these DCs that seem to be unused. [1] - https://telegram.org/privacy

It's more about the fact that five eyes intelligence services prefer to officially spy on each other's countries so they don't have to answer to their respective bureaucrats. They prefer plausible deniability.

Something like this:

   DC1 politically belongs to UK which "spies" on CA/US but physical servers are located in US so US ultimately retains control.

   DC2 politically belongs to France which "spies" on RUS/UKR/DE but physical servers are located in NL (e.g. in UK because one wouldn't be able to spot difference in ping). Maybe it's politically owned by UK/NZ or UK/AUS because France can't be publicly caught spying on Germany. But France wouldn't risk public arrest of Telegram CEO and the spectacle with russia if there is nothing to gain.

   DC4 politically belongs to USA which "spies" on UK/Israel but physical servers are in NL/UK

   DC5 politically belongs to UK/USA which "spies" on AUS/China/India but physical servers are in Singapore (e.g. former UK colony)
I love mentioning the UK in these kind of discussions because the pushback is biggest every time the Crown is mentioned, and ultimately US/CA/NZ/AUS are all colonies under the King.

Really cool to see realpolitik mapped out like this. It also highlights the problem of metadata with these kind of topics.

Re: Mysteries of Telegram Data Centers (2022)

#25

Post by ameliaquining »

dubbel wrote: post #24

The article is from May 2022, just fyi.

I think it was reposted today because https://core.telegram.org/bots/serverless was just announced, which prompted some curiosity on HN about Telegram's architecture (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48918534). But yes, the title should be updated to indicate this.

Re: Mysteries of Telegram Data Centers (2022)

#26

Post by glaslong »

The DC3 gap is interesting. I wonder whether they deprecated it because the other EU server had plenty of capacity, or still keep it but only for... "special" account data flow.

Also, it looks like it's easy enough to ID your DC on their API, though I haven't tried it yet (more of a Matrix Stan personally): https://core.telegram.org/method/help.getConfig

Re: Mysteries of Telegram Data Centers (2022)

#27

Post by vvpan »

dgroshev wrote: post #13

More mysteries of Telegram Data Centres: https://istories.media/en/stories/2025/06/10/telegram-fsb/ (and a follow-up: https://istories.media/en/news/2025/06/10/telegram-responds-... )

It's a great an telling investigation. Dropped in to share it as well. Telegram deserves no trust from us.

Re: Mysteries of Telegram Data Centers (2022)

#29

Post by Anon1096 »

tobinfekkes wrote: post #21
Anon1096 wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most of big tech's major data centers are in Loudoun County, VA on the east coast not the west coast. It's centrally located to be great latency for the east coast and OK latency for west coast and Europe. Plus a friendly regulatory environment and lots of existing DCs (AWS us-east-1, Azure East US 1/2) If you're feeling any better latency on the west coast it's more likely to be placebo than real.

On the contrary, Big tech famously has plenty of data centers on the west coast: • Quincy, WA (Microsoft) • The Dalles, Oregon (Google) • Prineville, Oregon (Facebook, Apple) • Hillsboro, Oregon (Cloudflare, others) • Boardman, Oregon (AWS)

By traffic load east coast datacenters dwarfs these.

Re: Mysteries of Telegram Data Centers (2022)

#30

Post by overallduka »

dgroshev wrote: post #13

More mysteries of Telegram Data Centres: https://istories.media/en/stories/2025/06/10/telegram-fsb/ (and a follow-up: https://istories.media/en/news/2025/06/10/telegram-responds-... )

Good story, I yet believe the guy is trying to do the right thing. In the lex Friedman podcast he talks about banning extremist channels in both sides always, the story focus more on the Nalvani's block, but accordingly him he also bans other sides depending on the content. I do follow a number of Telegram channels about the Ukraine war, and the pro Ukraine channels are there together with pro Russian channels.
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