Telegram LLC, a limited liability corporation headquartered in Dubai, provides an encrypted, free cloud-based instant messaging service. It was founded by entrepreneur Pavel Durov, a French-Russian citizen and the company’s current CEO, who was detained on August 24 in Paris shortly after disembarking from his private plane at Le Bourget airport, pursuant to a warrant filed by French authorities.
Durov, who also founded the Russian social network VK, has been accused of several irregularities in Telegram, including a lack of moderation and cooperation with law enforcement, as well as the presence of various tools, such as cryptocurrency exchanges, that enable the platform to be complicit in illegal activities ranging from drug trafficking to fraud.
Telegram Features
Telegram’s capabilities include the ability to exchange text messages between two individuals or groups, make audio and encrypted video conversations, and exchange voice messages, video messages, photographs, videos, stickers, and files of any size up to 2GB. It is also possible to schedule a message’s sending time, establish a message’s self-destruct timer, allow text to be automatically deleted after viewed by the receiver, remove messages even for the recipient, and alter the text after sending.
Secret chats
However, while WhatsApp and Signal provide end-to-end encryption for all chats, Telegram only promises end-to-end encryption for private discussions. The system employed is known as MTProto, a native technology that many feel to be less secure than Signal’s Open Whisper System. End-to-end encryption prevents messages from being retrieved from servers, forwarded, or recorded as screenshots.
Jihadists propaganda tool
Telegram’s rigorous privacy policies and usage of encrypted chats have made it one of the most popular propaganda tools among jihadists, to the point where Durov was forced to reply in September 2015 by announcing the suspension of 78 ISIS-linked channels. Telegram is frequently used for sharing pornographic and pirated material (movies, music, newspapers) and has evolved into the preferred communication tool for conspiracy theorists, and racist, misogynistic, and anti-Semitic movements worldwide, including far-right groups like the Proud Boys, who sought refuge on Telegram after being barred from Facebook and Twitter following the Capitol attack. In this context, the corporation revealed that it has blocked “dozens” of neo-Nazi and white supremacist channels with tens of thousands of subscribers for encouraging violence.
