[shawnz]

It was just an example of a product which could be touted as enabling protestors.

The other use cases of Telegram could be serviced by other apps. There are plenty of non-E2E social networks available just like Telegram.

EDIT: Unfortunately postmodernbrute I am not able to reply to your comment. But I am not trying to deny that Telegram has caught a wave of popularity among Belarusians and others. What I am saying is that Telegram likely only has that trust because of puff pieces like this. It is not because of any technological superiority or unique feature that it provides (since it isn't/there aren't any).

[postmodernbrute]

But there wasn't another communication tool that was similarly popular and trusted among the Belarus people. And that, is the difference. Their choice in this protest matters much more to the reporting than your opinion as an outsider.