Channels are not fully encrypted, end-to-end. All communications on a Telegram channel can be seen by anyone on the channel and are also visible to Telegram. Telegram may be asked by a government to hand over the communications from a channel. Telegram has a history of standing up to Russian government requests for data, but how comfortable you are relying on that history to predict future behavior is up to you. Because Telegram has this data, it may also be stolen by hackers or leaked by an internal employee. "Your messages about the movement of the enemy through the official chatbot … bring new trophies every day," the government agency tweeted. In 2018, Russia banned Telegram although it reversed the prohibition two years later. Such instructions could actually endanger people — citizens receive air strike warnings via smartphone alerts. Telegram was founded in 2013 by two Russian brothers, Nikolai and Pavel Durov.
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