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WhatsApp is blocking Telegram links

orat.io

231–240 of 240 posts

Re: WhatsApp is blocking Telegram links

#231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Signal uses asymmetrical encryption - your private key is very well able to prove your identity - I'm pretty sure the concept "identity" in Signal is built on that technology. But for contacting people - well - what else would you suggest?!

Hi plusquamperfekt. I don't know your mail address or telephone number. If this message manages to reach you - can you explain your point a bit more? If the private key would _be_ the identify, that'd be awesome. And maybe I fail to understand ChatSecure/Signal. I'd be glad to be corrected. But as far as I understand, that system ties a user to a mobile number, because 'that is as good a unique identifier as we get'…

I think the identity is connected to what key pair you control / what private key you have on your phone.

F.x. I installed a while ago Signal on my phone and recently went to another country where I used a different SIM card (hence a different phone number) and I could still use my Signal app as usual.

Re: WhatsApp is blocking Telegram links

#232
post #37

According to the Telegram FAQ [1] the Telegram Facebook page [2] has been taken down as well. [1] https://telegram.org/faq#facebook [2] https://www.facebook.com/tlgrm

Oh wow, that’s ridiculous! Facebook attacking Telegram to such an extent leaves a really bad taste in my mouth.

Switch to Telegram today, just to piss off Facebook. Doesn't matter how much many they donate to charity.

Re: WhatsApp is blocking Telegram links

#233

This is an extraordinarily bad precedent. Facebook has traditionally bought companies that it felt were competitive threats (Instagram, Whatsapp, etc) even though a significant percentage of their growth came from shares on Facebook products. It now appears that they will deal with competitors by crushing their ability to grow. Of course, they are going to say that this is because of Telegram's links to terrorism. Bu…

Don't assume FB never offered to purchase. Maybe they did, and Telegram turned them down. Then FB starts the dirty sabotage. We can only speculate if this is a retaliatory move by FB or not, but either way it's NOT ethical - and I'm very glad to hear many people are moving from WatsApp to Telegram against the foul play. Let's hope this is action #1 of FB driving their $19B purchase into the ground. They need to learn a lesson from this.

Re: WhatsApp is blocking Telegram links

#234

I think this is a good opportunity to plug Signal. Telegram uses a non-standard DIY crypto protocol that already had attacks, its chats are not end to end encrypted by default, and Telegram stores all your messages in the cloud by default while deceptively advertising as a 'private' alternative. Signal / TextSecure on the other hand is encrypted by default, implements more thoroughly audited cryptography, and is reco…

unfortunately it isn't currently possible to use Signal on android without the gapps/google play store installed, which is a deal breaker (I'm not arguing about whether this makes sense or not from the developers' perspective, it's just a fact).

Why is this a deal breaker for you?

Re: WhatsApp is blocking Telegram links

#236
post #9

I use both whatsapp and telegram.. with whatsapp being the majority of my messaging, I'd been a little apprehensive since the facebook takeover, but haven't changed my usage habits. This was exactly what it took for me to start pushing my friends to telegram.

I feel like I've just finished convincing the majority of people I'm close to and communicate with regularly to use WhatsApp over standard SMS. I simply argued the group chat UX points and I don't know how privacy arguments would fly, sadly. I think it would induce eye-rolling irritation in them to ask them to switch again. I wish I had done better due diligence because I switched at a time when Signal/Telegram were available but I was pulled towards WA via another friend.

Re: WhatsApp is blocking Telegram links

#237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A reason not to use Telegram: https://oflisback.github.io/telegram-stalking/

Given the credibility attributed to Signal - f.x. by Bruce Schneier and Edward Snowden - I don't understand why it's not more popular than Telegram.

No desktop client (personal computer), no web client (work computer), no multi device support (multiple phones/computers). Telegram has all of these things.

EDIT: Apparently they're bringing desktop and "web" through a Chrome extension and possibly a desktop browser wrapper. Also multi device support for desktops but apparently not yet for mobile.

Re: WhatsApp is blocking Telegram links

#238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Indeed, and unsurprisingly, this results in a bug. It's not that it strips out the text, it's that it sets that variable to null which is then used for flow control. So you will run in to issues (not sure how it would manifest itself) if you share photo or video that does have text, but just doesn't contain "WhatsApp" ("Sent from FooBar"). It looks like it'll send a text and then send the photo[0] but who knows what…

Would it be better they set it to string.empty or ""?

Comment is now dead but I'd significantly refactor this code where I wouldn't be using nulls or empty strings as program flow control. At the very least I'd have an enum that was very explicit of what action I should be taking ie TEXT, PHOTO, VIDEO, etc.

The logic is too mixed up and this method does too many things. Off the top of my head you might refactor it so that inspection, classification, validation, preparation, etc all happen separately, right now this method does them all and then some.

Re: WhatsApp is blocking Telegram links

#239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have a source for your claims?

FB's SEC filings. I can pull the link for you tomorrow.

Here you go: http://investor.fb.com/secfiling.cfm?filingid=1326801-14-47&...

The claim is made at about 95% of the way through that document.

Re: WhatsApp is blocking Telegram links

#240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would it be better they set it to string.empty or ""?

Comment is now dead but I'd significantly refactor this code where I wouldn't be using nulls or empty strings as program flow control. At the very least I'd have an enum that was very explicit of what action I should be taking ie TEXT, PHOTO, VIDEO, etc. The logic is too mixed up and this method does too many things. Off the top of my head you might refactor it so that inspection, classification, validation, preparat…

Oh wow you sound like Uncle Bob (and I say that as a compliment).

I think you're right. There is a lot of room for refactoring here. A few more (business/model) classes would not hurt here.

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