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Mysteries of Telegram Data Centers (2022)

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Re: Mysteries of Telegram Data Centers (2022)

#121

Post by gf000 »

MaxMatti wrote: post #97
gf000 wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is that any better? Still no e2ee, proprietary, arguably worse UX for chat purposes.

I have yet to find a messenger with a better UX than Telegram. And I have tried lots in countless attempts to get away from this badly encrypted russian App.

I agree, I personally really dislike discord - I do get that it works better for certain group sizes, but still.

Given that most of the clients are open-source, I wonder why signal or someone else didn't just change the "backend"

Re: Mysteries of Telegram Data Centers (2022)

#122

Post by KomoD »

thisislife2 wrote: post #75
wronex wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. I don’t see the appeal compared to Signal. Although, Signal is also sketchy with an operating cost in the tens of millions of dollars per year. Where does the money come from?

The appeal of Telegram over Signal or WhatsApp is that it is not an American or BigTech service. (And, ofcourse, it's really good). Signal is funded by 2 rich American entrepreneurs who made their fortune when their services were acquired by Twitter (TextSecure / RedPhone) and Meta (WhatsApp), respectively. Whether it is indeed altruism behind this, you'll have to judge for yourself ...

> Signal is funded by 2 rich American entrepreneurs who made their fortune when their services were acquired by Twitter (TextSecure / RedPhone) and Meta (WhatsApp), respectively. Whether it is indeed altruism behind this, you'll have to judge for yourself ...

To be fair, Telegram is funded by billionaire Pavel Durov, co-founder of VK, the most popular social network in Russia and one of the most visited websites in the world.

Re: Mysteries of Telegram Data Centers (2022)

#123

Post by KomoD »

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-... )

I remember reading about it, but I didn't know they had responded. Thanks.

Re: Mysteries of Telegram Data Centers (2022)

#124

Post by tiagod »

SXX wrote: post #59
isatty wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

- Telegram has exemplary fast, native clients on most platforms I’ve used it on - Cat stickers - Did I mention it has the best native clients out of all the messaging apps? It boggles the mind why other companies can’t get this done.

Durov was smart enough to let community build open source clients and use them. And to make internally built clients open source.

That's not it. I believe all the clients were built by employees. What he did was give each client to a very small, experienced team.

Re: Mysteries of Telegram Data Centers (2022)

#125

Post by vvpan »

dgroshev wrote: post #34
overallduka wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Of course he would say that. Even besides the fallaciousness of this argument (there is no equivalence between an aggressor and a victim), Pavel Durov is completely untrustworthy. There is product stuff, like misleading claims about Telegram's encryption and comparisons to Signal. In reality, for the vast majority of chats they have plaintext, unlike Signal. There are more subtle positioning claims. Durov made a huge…

The Insider also did an investigation disproving his claims that he "fled". He consistently visited Russia afterwards.

Edit: it's another iStories piece, not Insider, Insider only re-reported it.

https://storage.googleapis.com/istories/en/news/2024/08/27/p...

Re: Mysteries of Telegram Data Centers (2022)

#126

Post by vvpan »

Somebody already posted it but I wanted to mention it again, investigations that Telegram has not been able to dispute have revealed that Telegram's infrastructure is managed by a person who is also managing infra for FSB. And this is happening unbeknownst to Telegram employees.

https://istories.media/en/stories/2025/06/10/telegram-fsb/

Re: Mysteries of Telegram Data Centers (2022)

#127

Post by vvpan »

overallduka wrote: post #22
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

Except Pavel Durov has been caught lying before and in general is not a great source of information.

Re: Mysteries of Telegram Data Centers (2022)

#128

Post by senderista »

overallduka wrote: post #30
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.

Telegram channels are about the only way to get the reality on the ground on both sides.

Re: Mysteries of Telegram Data Centers (2022)

#130

Post by inigyou »

maqp wrote: post #41
dakolli wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

telegram is the safest encrypted messaging app. Period, full stop.

>telegram is the safest encrypted messaging app. Period, full stop. Yes, let's see * Not end-to-end encrypted by default * No end-to-end encrypted groups * No end-to-end encryption on any desktop client by the vendor, forcing cross-platform users to drop secret chats. This includes 81% of working age people who sit on their computer during work day, and 100% of college students and IT workers. * No post-quantum key e…

If Telegram is a Russian honeypot, why is it banned and blocked in Russia?

(Answer: to make it not look like a Russian honeypot)

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