On one hand, I am happy that Telegram exists; its founding story, homebrew crypto, cute marketing and "not-American" position has made it a shit magnet for a lo

On one hand, I am happy that Telegram exists; its founding story, homebrew crypto, cute marketing and "not-American" position has made it a shit magnet for a lot of people that don't know what makes things secure, and are convinced by some Zuck-esque figure's charisma that he knows what's going on encryption-wise. It makes it a lightning rod for this type of press, attracts the idiotic bits of Daesh, and keeps this press-fueled, IC-backed anti-crypto heat off of other systems that actually work to keep people secure. On the other hand, some others inevitably become collateral damage, using Telegram's (entirely) insecure defaults and thinking they have "secret" messages, or worse yet, enabling MTProto and believing they are safe in high-risk environments. Given this latest PR stunt, though, I think the benefits of Telegram's existence seem to outweigh its costs.