WhatsApp is blocking Telegram links • Hacker News Board

Re: WhatsApp is blocking Telegram links

#91

Post by cJ0th » Tue, Dec 01, 2015, 5:00 PM UTC

A friend once mourned that she got too many spam mails. I recommended her a throwaway e-mail service via a private Facebook message. FB blocked my message telling me that I can not send it as it includes a dangerous link.

I made a screenshot of this response and wanted to share that instead. The funny thing is that in the screenshot, FBs red comment re: the dangerous link was so blurry that you could not read it. I guess this was probably due to a compression algorithm they apply on pictures but it is funny that the rest of the message was easily readable in the screenshot.

Re: WhatsApp is blocking Telegram links

#92

Post by sschueller » Tue, Dec 01, 2015, 5:01 PM UTC

an4rchy wrote: post #2

Wow, didn't expect this from WhatsApp. I wonder if we can hear it from their side to see if they have a specific reason. Also, are they blocking any other messenger links i.e WeChat, Line etc or just Telegram.

The current version of WhatsApp is clearly trying to make it difficult to leave the ecosystem. You can see that when you want to copy text in Android. If you copy it you can only send it to other WhatsApp users. In order to copy it somewhere else you need to use the share feature. In Telegram and others you can copy paste easily into other apps.

Re: WhatsApp is blocking Telegram links

#93

Post by fluxquanta » Tue, Dec 01, 2015, 5:04 PM UTC

roymurdock wrote: post #88

venning wrote: post #75

Playing devil's advocate: WhatsApp is a $22B investment. It makes sense to try to prevent it from being canabalized from the inside. We've seen something like this before, when AIM allowed MSN Messenger to interoperate. I know this is a little different, but that was still how AIM lost. Here is a fantastic war story from one of the MSN engineers on the battle to subvert AIM [1]. [1] https://nplusonemag.com/issue-19/e…

From my experience, AIM lost because it was the cool thing to do in high school before everyone had cell phones. Once texting/BBM was a thing, AIM became completely obsolete. I don't think I know anyone who ever used MSN Messenger.

>I don't think I know anyone who ever used MSN Messenger

I did because it had the best quality video chat at the time, before Skype became a thing, but that was probably 15 years ago. My current company used to use it for in-office communication as recently as five years ago when I was first hired. It was an abysmal mess of sending out group chats as individual windows every time someone had a question. For a software company it was really disgraceful.

Re: WhatsApp is blocking Telegram links

#94

Post by eveningcoffee » Tue, Dec 01, 2015, 5:08 PM UTC

cJ0th wrote: post #91

A friend once mourned that she got too many spam mails. I recommended her a throwaway e-mail service via a private Facebook message. FB blocked my message telling me that I can not send it as it includes a dangerous link. I made a screenshot of this response and wanted to share that instead. The funny thing is that in the screenshot, FBs red comment re: the dangerous link was so blurry that you could not read it. I g…

It could be that it was also result of the character recognition.

Could you repeat the test and provide the name of the service so others can try to replicate it?

Re: WhatsApp is blocking Telegram links

#95

Post by Laaw » Tue, Dec 01, 2015, 5:09 PM UTC

amyjess wrote: post #87

venning wrote: post #75

Playing devil's advocate: WhatsApp is a $22B investment. It makes sense to try to prevent it from being canabalized from the inside. We've seen something like this before, when AIM allowed MSN Messenger to interoperate. I know this is a little different, but that was still how AIM lost. Here is a fantastic war story from one of the MSN engineers on the battle to subvert AIM [1]. [1] https://nplusonemag.com/issue-19/e…

> We've seen something like this before, when AIM allowed MSN Messenger to interoperate. I know this is a little different, but that was still how AIM lost. Lost? AIM was the dominant IM platform in the US until the late 00s/early 10s when mobile and cloud-based services took over. First SMS/MMS and then platforms like Facebook Messenger, Google Hangouts, and Skype. The only place MSN was dominant was third-world cou…

SMS/MMS lost? Tell that to my friends/family/telcos.

Re: WhatsApp is blocking Telegram links

#96

Post by MAGZine » Tue, Dec 01, 2015, 5:09 PM UTC

amyjess wrote: post #87

venning wrote: post #75

Playing devil's advocate: WhatsApp is a $22B investment. It makes sense to try to prevent it from being canabalized from the inside. We've seen something like this before, when AIM allowed MSN Messenger to interoperate. I know this is a little different, but that was still how AIM lost. Here is a fantastic war story from one of the MSN engineers on the battle to subvert AIM [1]. [1] https://nplusonemag.com/issue-19/e…

> We've seen something like this before, when AIM allowed MSN Messenger to interoperate. I know this is a little different, but that was still how AIM lost. Lost? AIM was the dominant IM platform in the US until the late 00s/early 10s when mobile and cloud-based services took over. First SMS/MMS and then platforms like Facebook Messenger, Google Hangouts, and Skype. The only place MSN was dominant was third-world cou…

MSN was way more popular than AIM in parts of Canada (maybe all, I can't speak nationally).

Probably, AIM usage correlated with AOL's marketing strategy, meaning it prevailed in the US, though I'm not even sure about europe.

Anyhow, your assertion that MSN was only dominant in 3rd world countries is unfounded.

Re: WhatsApp is blocking Telegram links

#97

Post by venning » Tue, Dec 01, 2015, 5:12 PM UTC

amyjess wrote: post #87

venning wrote: post #75

Playing devil's advocate: WhatsApp is a $22B investment. It makes sense to try to prevent it from being canabalized from the inside. We've seen something like this before, when AIM allowed MSN Messenger to interoperate. I know this is a little different, but that was still how AIM lost. Here is a fantastic war story from one of the MSN engineers on the battle to subvert AIM [1]. [1] https://nplusonemag.com/issue-19/e…

> We've seen something like this before, when AIM allowed MSN Messenger to interoperate. I know this is a little different, but that was still how AIM lost. Lost? AIM was the dominant IM platform in the US until the late 00s/early 10s when mobile and cloud-based services took over. First SMS/MMS and then platforms like Facebook Messenger, Google Hangouts, and Skype. The only place MSN was dominant was third-world cou…

Fair point. I got a little word-happy.

Re: WhatsApp is blocking Telegram links

#98

Post by cJ0th » Tue, Dec 01, 2015, 5:13 PM UTC

eveningcoffee wrote: post #94

cJ0th wrote: post #91

A friend once mourned that she got too many spam mails. I recommended her a throwaway e-mail service via a private Facebook message. FB blocked my message telling me that I can not send it as it includes a dangerous link. I made a screenshot of this response and wanted to share that instead. The funny thing is that in the screenshot, FBs red comment re: the dangerous link was so blurry that you could not read it. I g…

It could be that it was also result of the character recognition. Could you repeat the test and provide the name of the service so others can try to replicate it?

> It could be that it was also result of the character recognition.

That's what I initially thought. But then again, it seemed a bit too paranoid.

The name of the service is discardmail.com

Re: WhatsApp is blocking Telegram links

#99

Post by coldcode » Tue, Dec 01, 2015, 5:13 PM UTC

rms_returns wrote: post #85

an4rchy wrote: post #2

Wow, didn't expect this from WhatsApp. I wonder if we can hear it from their side to see if they have a specific reason. Also, are they blocking any other messenger links i.e WeChat, Line etc or just Telegram.

FB is too large an organization to survive long when competition is eating a huge chunk of their services. And especially so, if the competition is someone like telegram who is both free and open source. Their decision to purchase WhatsApp turned out to be very ill-timed. WhatsApp was at the peak of their popularity when they did, but that peak was only because of ignorance of the masses - ignorance about glaring hol…

Buying WhatsApp made plenty of sense. Paying 22B was 22X what it was worth.

Re: WhatsApp is blocking Telegram links

#100

Post by seagreen » Tue, Dec 01, 2015, 5:13 PM UTC

plusquamperfekt wrote: post #62

gkfasdfasdf wrote: post #35

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

We need a competitor to FB ... sadly options like Diaspora are very problematic b/c you need to either run a server or trust a private person with it.

This is a great comment, because it leads in right to the heart of the problem. Why is running a server so hard? This is actually really weird -- the cloud should mean that you can set up a server with a single click.

Of course, a Linux VPS needs a fair amount of love (fiddling with settings, updating, and so on). But there are other ways: https://sandstorm.io/