Many of us have a motivated bias. We don’t want to admit the useful Ruschian State controlled Telegram app is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. We are offered myths (Disinfolklore) about its founders’ love of free speech and “independence.” The data says otherwise.
To be clear: there is no way of compromising with Telegram: if it’s on your phone, the Tuschian state can access you.
First through Disinfolklore concealed among data / gossip that you find useful.
And, second, through back door access Telegram and the Ruschian state has to your data via the app.
Third, meta data enables FSB to understand vast networks of people through who they contact, contact lists, and what they look at.
1. Russian funding
Sanctioned state-owned bank VTB Capital spent over $1 billion on Telegram bonds.
In 2018 Durov reported in documents to the SEC that he had received $850 million from 81 investors.
•Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich (invested $17 million);
•Sergey Solonin, founder of the Russian payment system Qiwi ($10 million);
•Russian oligarch David Yakobashvili, Fridman against whom Ukraine imposed sanctions for his proximity to the Putin regime.
2. Blocking and unblocking by the Russian authorities
The legend that Telegram doesn't hand over data to the authorities was developed in 2017. A terrorist attack on the St. Petersburg subway killed 16 people. The FSB stated that the criminals coordinated their actions on Telegram and demanded that Durov provide it with so-called encryption keys. According to the legend, they would allow the FSB to read the suspects' correspondence. Meanwhile, Roskomnadzor filed a lawsuit against the social network, promising to block it in Russia if it refused to provide the keys. Durov saidthat the special services would not receivesuch information.
Note this is just a “legend.” Its Disinfolklore planned to troll those suffering from Motivated Reasoning to use Telegram and become addicted to it.
In March 2022, Oleg Matveichev, deputy head of the Committee on Information Policy, Information Technology and Communications of Russia said: "Durov found a compromise with the FSB... Telegram has installed equipment so that it can monitor all dangerous subjects."
3. Concerns about encryption
Another legend designed to troll us into feelings of safety is that Telegram uses end-to-end encryption. Signal is safe. Be careful with WhatsApp. Telegram is simply lying about encryption.
Another confirmation that the data is stored on servers in unencrypted form was obtained by Wired journalists in a private conversation with one of the former developers of the messenger, who asked not to be named. The head of Telegram's support service, Marcus Ra, confirmed that the company's employees can decrypt unclassified chats on Telegram's servers.
4. Servers located in Russia
In 2014, when Durov briefly left Russia, a legend emerged that the developers, servers, and office were located abroad.
These are just legends: Disinfolklore. In fact the servers are in Russia. And shopfronts elsewhere are used to fool us.
5. Employees located in Russia
6. Evidence for the FSB
In August 2022, Kherson journalist Ihor Bondarenko was taken prisoner by Russia while trying to leave the city. Two months earlier, he had deleted all correspondence from his messengers, including a telegram. But during interrogation, the Russian military, according to Igor, brought his correspondence in a secret chat with representatives of the Right Sector for six months. Such cases are not uncommon.
The latter is a very important point. With lists of contacts of millions of people, Telegram can analyze connections between them, identify people's real names, their sphere of activity ("Alexander SBU," "Nikolai intelligence," or "Sergey General Staff"), find additional phone numbers that "anonymous" Telegram accounts may be registered to, and so on.
As @OSCE’s environmental security adviser for Zaporizhzhia BEFORE the full-scale invasion, I’ve been watching the world’s first terrorist occupation of a nuclear power plant VERY closely.
Here’s the story in 30+ tweets, since 24 Feb 2022. For those who care about nuclear terrorism, and historians… 👇🏾
1/
⚡️My first Tweet 👇🏾 warning of the imminent targeting of Europe’s largest nuclear power plant by Ruschist soldiers.
Strangely those most susceptible to Ruschia’s nuclear blackmail trolling (and who continue to promote idea Ukraine should surrender to Russia to save the world from nuclear annihilation) don’t pay ANY attention to the longest and most brutal and sole terrorist occupation of a nuclear power plant in world history. Go figure🤷🏾♀️
2/
⚡️As the international community’s sole environmental security advisor on the ground in Zaporizhzhia before the full-scale invasion, I was quick to realise Ruschia was specifically targeting the power plant for occupation.
Blackmailing Europe into forcing Ukraine to surrender to Ruschism has been a key plank of Ruschia’s hopeless war in Ukraine since the beginning of the full-scale invasion.
Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and the leverage its occupation provides to scare all of Europe is ⚡️ main objective in occupying it. As this thread 👇🏾cataloguing the occupation demonstrates.
⚡️Russian Government Had 4 Weeks To Stop the Steal.
"...FSB, Putin, Shoigyu will have used ALL their levers to stop this coup. They had all the powers of the Ruschist state their "rightful" authority gave them. And they failed.
They failed..."
👇🏽
1/10
⚡️Putin's Plight.
"...Bakhmut was to be for the Chef Saucerer Apprentice, what Chechnya was for Putin the Chief Sorcerer: such a win could be spun through webs of Disinfolklore into the "Right" recognised by every Russian to lead Russia unopposed..."
⚡️What Unites Ruscism, Axis of Misogyny, Paleo-Conservative & Anti-Woke campaigns?
They want to destroy the post-World War II legal order.
The consensus that aspiration towards equality of opportunity for everyone is the ONLY legitimate goal for democratic societies.
Anti-Equality rhetorics Other categories of humans: Women, Trans, Remainers, Immigrants, Ukrainians,...
Then they use this Othering to win power to roll-back the legal order instituted after WWII.
These instruments are a total package. Any rhetoric proposing to unpick parts of this complex indicates ignorance or strategic goal of reversing the post-WWII legal order.
Genocide Convention.
Refugee Convention.
Laws of War.
Equality Conventions (ICCPR & ICESCR).
Human Rights laws.
Anti-Discrimination laws.
Putin's Chef and the entire Ruschist Disinfolklore apparatus is focussed on provoking division over the post-WWII legal order's preservation.
American evangelical conservatives, oligarchs and extreme nationalists in England, France, Germany,... all are united.
They minimise the reversal of the legal order that was brought in to prevent another holocaust.
They say it's a "Cultural War."
No it's not. It's the restarting of the Second World War. They're trying to relitigate the peace settlement, in favour of today's most powerful humans.
Apart from everything else, their success in destroying the institutions which promote the realisation of equality of opportunity will entrench today's most powerful in position for perpetuity.
Or until a war.
Remember: Violations of human rights are trip-wire for conflict and war. Every war in history has been "justified" by human rights breaches. A more equal society is not just about culture. It's about a peaceful world.
“Dehumanizing Ukrainians (Russia’s key propaganda goal), denying them the right to an unique identity different from a Russian one, after justifying atrocities ("the punishment must be harsh") and glorifying repression, re-education and Ukrainian suffering…”
"the Catholic regions," western Ukraine, "will remain hostile to Russia, but it will be neutral and demilitarized, and Nazism will be banned there. The haters of Russia will go there."
And what would "guarantee" the quietist subjugation of rump Ukraine…” 2/
“and its compliance with Russian diktats? The "threat of an immediate continuation of the military operation," says Sergeitsev…Ukraine must (in language somewhat reminiscent of the Iranian Revolution’s ideologists) "free itself from the intoxication, temptation,…” 3/
Wimbledon's a bit like Bucha - parks, nice houses, prosperous people. What Russians did to Bucha 🎥👇🏽It's what Russians will do to @Wimbledon, its brand, & given a chance, its wombles, village & villagers. Russia had lists of Bucha residents to kill - they killed them. 1/14
⚡️If Russia hadn't murdered Ukrainian athlete Dariia Kurdel while she was training for the Olympics, Dariia would have enjoyed seeing Russia lose the #Olympics sport of threatening genocide. No other country was competing. Threatening genocide breaches international law. 2/14
@Wimbledon's 2022 stance was correct: NO way of enabling Russian or Belarussian athletes to participate, without the Russian state using such participation as a means of promoting its "Z" brand. UN Commission has now established👇🏽Russia as liable for the Crime of Aggression. 3/14