4 ms·

This FB Mynamar issue reminded me of the looming crisis at Telegram: 'Telegram has told Russian regulators that it is technically unable to hand the encryption

This FB Mynamar issue reminded me of the looming crisis at Telegram: 'Telegram has told Russian regulators that it is technically unable to hand the encryption keys to user accounts to the country’s secret services, just weeks after the messaging platform was ordered to do so or risk being banned in the country Roskomnadzor, Russia’s communications watchdog, told the company last month that it had two weeks to give the FSB, successor to the KGB security agency, access to the company’s encrypted messages or face the possibility of being blocked'. https://www.ft.com/content/84a878da-3664-11e8-8b98-2f31af407cc8 https://www.ft.com/content/84a878da-3664-11e8-8b98-2f31af407... Iran (where Telegram have 40 m users) is on the verge of banning it too as it was 'used to organise mass protests last year'. We seem to have gone from FB being an enabler and hero of 'arab spring' to now being accused of being a tool of darker forces against states. Telegram have raised over 2 billion USD (of probably dodgy money given terms of ICO)and may now be crippled by state interference...

dragonwriter 9y ago
> We seem to have gone from FB being the enabler and hero of 'arab spring' to now being accused of being a tool of darker forces against states. Well, (1) you may have confused FB with Twitter in regard to the Arab Spring (both were involved, but Twitter seemed to get more credit at the time), (2) the Arab Spring itself was a set of anti-State uprisings, and (3) in Myanmar, the atrocities FB is accused of facilitating were committed by, rather than against, the State.
- olivermarks 9y ago
  I'll change 'the' to 'a' as both FB & Twitter were lauded in the western media.
  - Cyph0n 9y ago
    Your initial statement was correct. In Tunisia -- the spark that arguably started the Arab Spring -- Twitter use was (and still is) virtually non-existent when compared to Facebook use. Twitter is huge in KSA and some of the Gulf, though.
- aldous 9y ago
  In regards to point 1, Facebook was indeed lauded at the time as a catalyst for the Egypt revolution (more so than Twitter). A good illustration of this was the Egyptian guy that named his child “Facebook” in honour of its role in the uprising. http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/meast/02/21/egypt.child.facebook/index.html http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/meast/02/21/egypt.child.fa...

dragonwriter 9y ago

> We seem to have gone from FB being the enabler and hero of 'arab spring' to now being accused of being a tool of darker forces against states. Well, (1) you may have confused FB with Twitter in regard to the Arab Spring (both were involved, but Twitter seemed to get more credit at the time), (2) the Arab Spring itself was a set of anti-State uprisings, and (3) in Myanmar, the atrocities FB is accused of facilitating were committed by, rather than against, the State.

olivermarks 9y ago
I'll change 'the' to 'a' as both FB & Twitter were lauded in the western media.
- Cyph0n 9y ago
  Your initial statement was correct. In Tunisia -- the spark that arguably started the Arab Spring -- Twitter use was (and still is) virtually non-existent when compared to Facebook use. Twitter is huge in KSA and some of the Gulf, though.
aldous 9y ago
In regards to point 1, Facebook was indeed lauded at the time as a catalyst for the Egypt revolution (more so than Twitter). A good illustration of this was the Egyptian guy that named his child “Facebook” in honour of its role in the uprising. http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/meast/02/21/egypt.child.facebook/index.html http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/meast/02/21/egypt.child.fa...