Telegram CEO calls out rival Signal, claiming it has ties to US government

Telegram CEO Pavel Durov issued a scathing criticism of Signal, alleging the messaging service is not secure and has ties to US intelligence agencies. There is no evidence Signal is hooked into the US government as described by Durov. Durov made his remarks on his Telegram channel on Wednesday, pushing a variety of points …

[Anonymous Coward]

Apparently Musk is very keen for everyone to use Telegram, which is probably all we need to know about this.

( also may be connected to some right-wing campaign against one of the Signal board members who has just been made boss of NPR )

[Anonymous Coward]

Telegram hosts all sorts of advanced fuckwittery chat channels that have multiplied during COVID, etc, and whose behaviour would get them banned on practically any other platform. So Elon is well in there with the likes of David Ike.

AC as sadly a friend of mine has become one of said fuckwitts from following too much on YouTube first, and now on Telegram.

[Anonymous Coward]

There's no love lost between Signal and Telegram ever since Moxie demonstrated that Telegram's encryption was useless.

For some reason Musk still pushes Telegram even after being told why it's no good.

[Anonymous Coward]

I think the term is "useful idiot"

[steviebuk]

Because Musk is a fuckwhit. He's a shill for so many, especially the CCP. He needs China for his factories so on a video the other day, praised China for its history. Yet totally ignores the fact the CCP destroy Chinese history by actively smashing it all up. Praised its ancient language and ignored that the CCP wanted to get rid of the Chinese language.

[Cliffwilliams44]

Right wing? She's done quite well promoting that campaign all by herself. Exposing someone's political bias is neither right nor left wing. One should be careful what they write on the permanent Internet if they are unwilling for it to be exposed at a later time.

[Anonymous Coward]

It's a trap

Musk is trying to sow doubt among activists who rely on Signal to communicate and coordinate so they move to Telegram. Musk doesn't like activists so he'd rather have them in a place where there's weaker (and often none at all) encryption and various intelligence agencies (and oligarchs like him?) can eavesdrop.

[I like fruits]

Projection

You can take Durov out of Russia, but you can't take Russia out of Durov!

Projection is one of the Russians' favorite underhanded tactics.

PS. I'm surprised nobody used the BigBrother icon yet!

[DS999]

And Telegram isn't potentially under Putin's thumb?

https://www.wired.com/story/the-kremlin-has-entered-the-chat/

Byline: Russian antiwar activists placed their faith in Telegram, a supposedly secure messaging app. How does Putin’s regime seem to know their every move?

[amajadedcynicaloldfart]

Must be trying

to boost subscriptions to the "Premium" version.

Frankly, I would not trust this program enough to even install the thing, let alone give it my C.C. details...

[Wzrd1]

Re: Must be trying

Well, hinting at taking the company public, then this? Sounds precisely like a Musk play that the SEC repeatedly warned him about, but never sanctioned him for. Which is precisely what happens when one doesn't enforce laws.

[Anonymous Coward]

Durov is pathetic

if he has specific evidence, he should make it available, otherwise his claims are just Musk-style, public farts. And absolutely nothing to do with alleged telegram ipo, nosir.

p.s. I use telegram, purely to access various sources, and signal to communicate in private. But I'd never trust signal or any other platform to be inaccessible to the govs, regardless of their claims.

[Roland6]

“ Again, we've reached out for comment from Telegram and Signal”

I’m sure Ed Snowden would have something to say…

[druck]

Re: “ Again, we've reached out for comment from Telegram and Signal”

You do where he is these days?

[Wzrd1]

Re: “ Again, we've reached out for comment from Telegram and Signal”

"You do where he is these days?"

Nyet, where?

I'll just get my hat...

[Sitaram Chamarty]

Prof Matt Green (Johns Hopkins) has an excellent rebuttal...

Matthew Green of Johns Hopkins has an excellent rebuttal. One of these links should work, and ideally should be added to the main article itself, considering Prof Green's creds in this.

- https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1789687898863792453.html

- https://nitter.poast.org/matthew_d_green/status/1789687898863792453

- https://web.archive.org/web/20240513112355/https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1789687898863792453.html

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Prof Matt Green (Johns Hopkins) has an excellent rebuttal...

I agree, this analysis should be linked from the article. Particularly the bit about how Telegram seems to use reproducibility of the build to distract from their weak spot: encryption.

[Michael Wojcik]

Re: Prof Matt Green (Johns Hopkins) has an excellent rebuttal...

Yep. I trust Marlinspike a hell of a lot further than I trust Durov, and I trust Whisper a lot more than I trust MTProto.

Telegram's track record is pretty lousy.

[Roopee]

WhatsApp vs Signal

I use both WhatsApp and Signal and know which I’d trust more for anonymity and security, and it isn’t the one run by Meta! I chose Signal over Telegram on its technical merits.

Icon: obvious I would have thought, as already pointed out!

[Phil Kingston]

All the cool kids are using Session now anyway

[Anonymous Coward]

The really cool kids use pen and paper*, secured with a caesar cipher.

*recycled, obviously.

[PerlyKing]

I usually use rot13, or rot26 if I want to be *really* secure ;-)

[Minir12]

The fact that telegram is a Russian app makes any and all claims of superiority suspect.

Ok Ivan (ok boomer)

[CowHorseFrog]

> There is no evidence Signal is hooked into the US government as described by Durov.

I thought articles were supposed to be reporting facts and not making statements without any actual evidence.

Notice the article above makes that statement and then continues with a new thought.

[Wzrd1]

"I thought articles were supposed to be reporting facts and not making statements without any actual evidence."

So, now you want evidence of no evidence. So, there is no evidence of God, that means that you want His telephone number to prove his non-existence before you disbelieve?

One provides evidence of existence, not evidence of non-existence, as that which does not exist will have no evidence to support its non-existence. Or maybe luminiferous aether still exists, despite no evidence for it. Well, those and unicorns, right?