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by beagle3 1988 days ago
> It's amazing to me that people still consider Telegram a legitimate contender in choosing a messenger.

It's still likely better than WeChat FB Messenger in terms of privacy. You just get to choose the devil, and some consider Russia no worse than Facebook (and all that it represents) or China.
1 comments
m12k 1988 days ago
Considering the founder of Telegram more or less had his previous startup VK (Russian competitor to Facebook) stolen by Putin after his refusal to hand over info about Ukrainian protestors [1], and has left the country with no interest in returning, I'd be inclined to trust that Telegram is not a front for the Russian state, quite the contrary in fact.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pavel_Durov#Dismissal_from_VK

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FDSGSG 1988 days ago
Telegram was developed in the VK offices for a long time after VK was supposedly "stolen" from Durov.

>left the country with no interest in returning

Well, except for when he does

https://tjournal.ru/tech/52954-durov-back-in-ussr

http://uip.me/2016/04/dark-side-of-the-telegram/

https://lenta.ru/news/2017/03/20/durov/

https://medium.com/@anton.rozenberg/friendship-betrayal-clai...

https://theoutline.com/post/2348/what-isn-t-telegram-saying-...

https://twitter.com/ChristopherJM/status/910186197598838784

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m12k 1988 days ago
Thanks for the background info!
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