Telegram was co-founded by Pavel and Nikolai Durov, the brothers who had previously created VKontakte. VK is Russiaâs equivalent of Facebook, a social network used for public and private messaging, audio and video sharing as well as online gaming. In January, SimpleWeb reported that VK was Russiaâs fourth most-visited website, after Yandex, YouTube and Googleâs Russian-language homepage. In 2016, Forbesâ Michael Solomon described Pavel Durov (pictured, below) as the âMark Zuckerberg of Russia.â So, uh, whenever I hear about Telegram, itâs always in relation to something bad. What gives? Anastasia Vlasova/Getty Images If you initiate a Secret Chat, however, then these communications are end-to-end encrypted and are tied to the device you are using. That means itâs less convenient to access them across multiple platforms, but you are at far less risk of snooping. Back in the day, Secret Chats received some praise from the EFF, but the fact that its standard system isnât as secure earned it some criticism. If youâre looking for something that is considered more reliable by privacy advocates, then Signal is the EFFâs preferred platform, although that too is not without some caveats. In the United States, Telegram's lower public profile has helped it mostly avoid high level scrutiny from Congress, but it has not gone unnoticed.
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