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Encryption Technology

Telegram Adds 25 Million New Users In Just 72 Hours (androidpolice.com) 91

Posted by BeauHD from the impressive-growth dept.
According to founder and CEO Pavel Durov, Telegram gained 25 million new users in the last 72 hours as it smashed past the 500 million active monthly user mark. Android Police reports: For comparison, the app averaged around 1.5 million new users per day in 2020, which was impressive enough already. Durvov says that this is down to his company's simple privacy and security promise, above all else.

The bulk of the new users are coming from Asia (38%), Europe (27%), and Latin America (21%), with around 8% signing up from the MENA region (Middle East and North Africa). Although not explicitly noted in Durov's post, there is likely a good number of Parler orphans joining Telegram -- although there are differences between the functions of the two apps, there's talk that former Parler users are heading to encrypted messaging apps in search of a more private platform. Signal has seen a similar rise in popularity for the same reason.
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Telegram Adds 25 Million New Users In Just 72 Hours More

Telegram Adds 25 Million New Users In Just 72 Hours

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  • Hmmm... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by erp_consultant ( 2614861 ) on Tuesday January 12, 2021 @05:50PM (#60935294)

    Wonder how many of them are people that just shut down their Facebook and/or Twitter accounts?

    • The Daily Show fed a funny video to my Alexa Show this morning... many Fox News voices complaining about lost followers. Hey, those people we're listening to you anyway....

    • Hello, young Captain Obvious sidekick with the green clothes!

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      I wonder how many of them are bots that just got banned from Facebook/Twitter.

      They will follow their victims to new platforms and rapidly register thousands of bogus accounts, filling them out with fake details, fake profile pictures etc.

  • What about Signal?
  • ... it is owned by Russians and Putin ....

    • No need to own anything. I can real Telegram's messages on my network right now. Which is easy if you wrote DRM cracks in your youth. Like ALL Russian programmers too. :D

    • installing it right away, sick and tired of US-owned social media

    • Re:Wait till the figure out ... (Score:4, Funny)

      by ewibble ( 1655195 ) on Tuesday January 12, 2021 @06:54PM (#60935522)

      Ironic that you have to go to a Russian company to exercise your freedom of speech in America.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by jrumney ( 197329 )

        Imagine the value to the Russian government of being able to control which intelligence is fed to the US three letter agencies, and knowing which groups are really serious about their sedition and therefore worth infiltrating rather than passing on their info, as they are likely to gain access to sensitive intelligence and can be steered for the benefit of Russia.

      • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

        by Darinbob ( 1142669 )

        And yet, free speech in America is alie and well and doing great. If we had free speech restrictions we wouldn't be hearing about this here and we'd have to learn about it in the underground. But if you support insurrection in your posts expect to get banned, here or in Russia. We had free speech in America long before big tech arrived, and we still have it, and have some business relationships cancelled does not change that. You do NOT need Twitter or Parler or Facebook or whatnot to engage in free sp

      • Ironic that you have to go to a Russian company to exercise your freedom of speech in America.

        The greatness of the Internet is operational resilience. We do what we have to do.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Ogive17 ( 691899 )
        I do not believe you understand what freedom of speech means in America. If you did, you would not compare the current situation to anything to do with Russia.

        How many high profile Putin opponents have been poisoned/killed over the past decade?

        • How many high profile Putin opponents have been poisoned/killed over the past decade?

          Yes, your Whataboutism is correct: America is not as bad as Russia, and Americans aren't being poisoned because of their political views.

          But perhaps we should have higher expectations than that.

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by Mitreya ( 579078 )

        Ironic that you have to go to a Russian company to exercise your freedom of speech in America.

        I don't mean to nitpick because there are plenty of problems with the power these companies are exercising.
        Still, exercising freedom of speech would be speaking up somewhere else after the government shut down Trump's Twitter account.
        When Twitter did it on their own accord, it is something else (maybe freedom from undue corporation influence which are basically public utilities at this point?)

      • In Oligopolic America, free speech exercises you.

  • One would like to believe that people are waking up a little bit. That being anywhere under the umbrella of Jack Dorsey or Zuckerberg is to be avoided whenever possible. And honestly there's straight up no reason to use facebook or WhatsApp anymore. As to twitter, it's really just for masochists at this point. Masochists and virtue-signaling idiots.

    • The GDPR proves they woke up a bit.

      Come over to Germany. Try to film random people on the street. It won't be 15 minutes before some elderly man/lady will tell you about "Datenschutz" or threaten to call the cops.

      Whoever managed to get the GDPR into law, even if an evil lobbyist with nefarious reasons, was a beautiful person. Because that started it here.
      (Probanly some Pirate Party members involved somewhere, I bet.)

  • Congrats to Amazon (Score:4, Insightful)

    by SuperKendall ( 25149 ) on Tuesday January 12, 2021 @05:54PM (#60935318)

    Instead of having tons of people using Parler where LE could have tracked some fringe group activity, you have managed to push every single extremist to a highly encrypted platform where no-one will have any idea what they are doing.

    Brilliant!

    • Re:Congrats to Amazon (Score:5, Insightful)

      by UnknowingFool ( 672806 ) on Tuesday January 12, 2021 @06:00PM (#60935342)
      How about Amazon’s position that they want nothing to do with illegal activities. How is the responsibility of Amazon to keep track of these activities for law enforcement?

    • Highly encrypted systems can't hide the "envelope data" so we'd notice a lot of point-to-point by a small group of people, and they'd unable to broadcast to get new members...

    • You are forgetting that doing law enforcement big favors in the surveillance aspects of their jobs is not Amazon's top priority, or probably even in the top 10. In fact, they probably want as little to do with law enforcement surveillance as they can, as that kind of thing represents a valid concern for people that care about data security (which is literally every business).

      Limiting legal exposure, customer data security concerns, as well as bad press; those are probably higher up the list for them. Whic

      • There's this Amazon product called Ring that is peddled by the police. You should look into that.

        • Oh yeah shit I forgot about how Ring doorbells are watching after people's shitposting on social media.

          Nice non-sequitur.

          • As I said look into it, there's more there than your non-witty reply.

            The police has been caught many times data mining ring for facial profiles to add to the DB.
            Amazon has been a more than willing partner.

    • Highly encrypted?? (Score:4, Interesting)

      by BAReFO0t ( 6240524 ) on Tuesday January 12, 2021 @06:24PM (#60935408)

      There is NO end-to-end encryption!
      Unless you actively enable it for that online session. Each time.
      Something those people will *never* even find out about.

      The NSA and FSB will feel like stealing candy from a baby. (Which of course fits right into the makeup of their personalities.)

      Then again, if you told me a month ago, that the freaking NSA would "not know" and "not be able" to prevent a mob from raiding freaking Capitol Hill, I would have called you wildly deluded ...
      So maybe they will "not be able" to this time too, and it will be a "total surprise" to Misseses and Misters OMGWeAreXKeyScoreSoWeAreGods!

    • the can't effectively coordinate. Normally what you do is have the FBI stick a mole into these organizations and shut them down before they do something like the Capital Hill attack.

      Seriously, what the f*** good does it do for some rando on /. to know that a group is plotting a violent coup. The most recent coup was all laid out in the open and Dickie McCgeezaks was done to stop it. So who cares if they're pushed underground? It's clear having them out in the open just helps them recruit allies.

    • Instead of having tons of people using Parler where LE could have tracked some fringe group activity, you have managed to push every single extremist to a highly encrypted platform where no-one will have any idea what they are doing.

      Brilliant!

      No-one will have any idea what they are doing, except the member they think is one of them. No need to crack encryption.

    • Apples and Oranges. Telegram is never going to recommend you join a hate group like facebook does.

      Telegram is basically encrypted ICQ. If you can maintain and grow a hate group with just a group chat I'd be impressed. Companies fail at running slack every day.

    • Only for people who can vet each new contact. A discredited person (such as Trump) can not set up an account and reach all his followers and give out secret orders.

  • in USA there is a telegram surge, Trump moved to it and Trumpsters have been jumping onto it.

    "Over 540,000 U.S. iPhone owners installed Telegram between Wednesday and Sunday. Telegram is the second-most downloaded app in the U.S.A. as of early Tuesday." --The Telegraph

    Deplatforming is backfiring and will turn into Platform Amplification. This will be have bad effects as society's divide deepens.

    • Europe here.

      Dibs on the Keys and California, when your civil war is over! ;)

    • I just got booted off boingboing for mentioning that people will migrate to telegram or vk.com, and the only real effect Trump's ban on Twitter will have is deepen the divide.

      Among other things I was asked "why do I think deepening the divide is bad".

      Echo chambers are such fun.

    • Deplatforming is backfiring and will turn into Platform Amplification. This will be have bad effects as society's divide deepens

      Maybe. He'll certainly have fewer followers as he goes further off the more open platforms. Is it better to have ten times more followers or one tenth the followers but those followers being ten times more extreme?

      • hahaha, no. Trump will get more *loyal* followers.

        The guy has tens of millions of adoring fans you know. After election day in November, the RNC continued to send out contribution link emails to 'defend the election', because I'm in a targeted demographic (boomer) I got a dozen of those things a day. The money collected mostly didn't go to the RNC however, but to Trump's PAC. He raised over $200M *after* the election. (latter part of article in link.)

        Trump has plans for the future. Be afraid, be very a

    • Man, everyone needs a tribe. Human nature, ya know? I for one don't subscribe to what everyone else wants... as evidenced by the Electoral College. [Sorry, it was the most recent example in mind at the time]

    • Seems a little unbelievable to me. Everyone I know who moved to telegram or signal did it due to a concern that WhatsApp was going to send messages to Facebook (which turned out to be bullshit).

      My sample size is small only about two dozen users, but not one of them was a trump supporter in the last two weeks.

  • You're making the case for Repeal 230... (Score:3)

    by The New Guy 2.0 ( 3497907 ) on Tuesday January 12, 2021 @06:06PM (#60935354)

    These displaced users are idiots compared to Slashdot readers... we've got these people trying to avoid observation because that would have led to a better response to the attack on the Capitol building.

    Basically, if Repeal 230 succeeds, there would be more control of Twitter and Facebook, and Parlor would be out of business. It's not a solution I'd like to see, but faced with a war against American targets, we're gonna have to break up these groups.

    • "If you want total security, go to prison. There you're fed, clothed, given medical care and so on. The only thing lacking... is freedom." - Dwight Eisenhower

      Eroding property rights in the search for better security for "freedom" means you've already lost the freedom you are trying to secure. Is the system perfect? No. However, roughly a billion people manage to not get kicked off Twitter and Facebook every day, so clearly this struggle isn't as hard as some make it out to be.

      Don't post inciteful seditio

      • Another point that needs to be debated... should we have less delay between the selection of the President Elect and swearing him in? Seems like Trump is a loser with too much control over everything but his own self for the next few days....

        • Another point that needs to be debated... should we have less delay between the selection of the President Elect and swearing him in? Seems like Trump is a loser with too much control over everything but his own self for the next few days....

          Under ideal circumstances the delay is intended to settle the vote count/dispute ( in a reasonable manner) then allow for transition. We elected a criminal clown, with the help of Russia. The clown appointed woefully incompetent/criminal interior positions. Lesson? Don't elect a clown.

      • from my share trading companies new code of conduct:

        Treat others with kindness
        Kindness is key in the Sharesies whnau and we expect our community to act in good faith. Be kind to each other and be kind to any staff you interact with at Sharesies. We’re real people—not robots!

        Breaking this can result without warning suspension of your trading account, resulting in loss of access to your assets.

        To those who say just leave I will.

      • "If you want total security, go to prison. There you're fed, clothed, given medical care and so on. The only thing lacking... is freedom." - Dwight Eisenhower

        Eroding property rights in the search for better security for "freedom" means you've already lost the freedom you are trying to secure. Is the system perfect? No. However, roughly a billion people manage to not get kicked off Twitter and Facebook every day, so clearly this struggle isn't as hard as some make it out to be.

        Don't post inciteful seditious shit, promotion of violence, anything in aid of crime, racist shit, child porn, or vast lies and conspiracy nonsense and you're just fine - you won't hear a peep out of Twitter or Facebook. It really isn't that hard.

        Exactly what I have been saying. The argument on one side : It could happen to anyone! The other side : Yeah If I incite violence and sedition? It's flawed logic.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by Z80a ( 971949 )

      You don't have to agree with everything your political side does, specially when it's only two and they're both horrible in endless ways.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by schwit1 ( 797399 )

      What would stop Parler or any other social media app from relocating or starting outside of the US and section 230 jurisdiction? Similar to being outside DMCA rules.

    • Fuck that

  • 25 million lost soouls with no clue. (I'm sorry.) (Score:3)

    by BAReFO0t ( 6240524 ) on Tuesday January 12, 2021 @06:17PM (#60935386)

    Telegram is closed source.
    It offers no encryption by default.
    Encryption only works online, in a special mode, and leaving that mode deletes the history too because that one's not encrypted either. Nor are its groups.
    At least the last time I checked.
    . . . Has that changed?

    If not, ... sorry, but that's no better than WhatsApp. They did not choose Telegram. They fell for it. Then again. those are former Watsapp users we are talking about. Not the greatest of judges, clearly.

    • Dude, [credible] Citation needed for your seemingly unsupported claims.

      • You could start with Wikipedia, which has an entire section on the longstanding security criticisms. [wikipedia.org]

        Also of note,

        Telegram has shut down a channel of the Iranian opposition that published calls to use Molotov cocktails against the police, after receiving a complaint from the Iranian government. Pavel Durov explained that the reason for the blocking was a "no calls to violence" policy...

        Also also of note,
        There was very active Islamic terrorism recruitment going on, mentioned in Wikipedia, but I can personally attest to that as well. I haven't used Telegram in a few years, but more than once I was randomly added to ISIS group chats (quickly learned how to disable that feature)... they were all in Arabic, but I recognized the black flag. I don't speak Arabic, nobody I know does, I

      • Technically all telegram messages are encrypted by default.

        All Telegram messages are always securely encrypted. Messages in Secret Chats use client-client encryption, while Cloud Chats use client-server/server-client encryption and are stored encrypted in the Telegram Cloud (more here). This enables your cloud messages to be both secure and immediately accessible from any of your devices – even if you lose your device altogether.

        The difference is that client/server encryption allows telegram to interc

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by khchung ( 462899 )

      that's no better than WhatsApp.

      To some, not owned by Facebook is already "better" even if both apps collect just as much information.

  • That's great. Although Telegram isn't perfect, I'm glad to see a greater adoption of technologies like this. Now if people could start encrypting the contents of their cloud storage...

  • Wait, so a ton of right wing extremists (Score:4, Insightful)

    by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Tuesday January 12, 2021 @07:12PM (#60935586)
    get the boot and their huge increase in users comes from Asia, Europe and Latin America, not the US?

    Somethin' ain't right (*cough* troll farms * cough*, should get that checked out...).

    • I thnk the users in Asia had to sign up directly because their bots in America couldn't do it.

    • My 75 years old mother, who was sent the new WhatsApp policy (in English?!) asked me about Signal yesterday which was a shock.

      It turned out, however, that everyone else but Americans and a few other nations is broadcasting the scandal in full and calls it Censorship. All media, even the woke...

      Or did you miss the reaction of even such wokers as Merkel and Macron?

      So, my mom and I moved to Signal.

  • I was going to use Telegram but ... (Score:4, Funny)

    by fahrbot-bot ( 874524 ) on Tuesday January 12, 2021 @07:27PM (#60935648)

    It seems really tiresome to have to end every sentence with ... STOP

  • And switch over to a Chinese-controlled TikTok.

    But more seriously, jumping over to an American-controlled non-profit like Signal seems like a prudent idea. Even better might be a platform not controlled by anyone (IRC?) or one at least controlled by a somewhat trustworthy nation that isn't a obsequious vassal state (Sweden).

  • ... this [buttondown.email] Telegram? The one where they added an intentional backdoor?

    They're in for a rude surprise if they think they have any security. Sure that backdoor got removed but who knows what they have added to replace it.

  • Could Swiss ~3$ Threema be an alternative? They say all is encrypted out of the box, including video stream. You can even use it without necessarily giving email addresse nor phone number : pure arbitrary numerical id if you want. Also, "for money" business model gives us a chance to not be "the product". I know it's not fully open source though, so it's no magic solution... Hmm wait : just checked it now and they say they are now ppen source! https://threema.ch/en/blog [threema.ch]. AFAIR their model is still through c

  • Datapoint of 1 here, but I've received multiple join notifications on Telegram from friends I had previously only had contact with on WhatsApp.

    One of them explicitly mentioned the WhatsApp ToS update as the reason for the switch.

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