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Telegram is currently the target of legal/regulatory investigations by Russia (alleged extremism), France (likewise), and India (alleged facilitation of nationa

Telegram is currently the target of legal/regulatory investigations by Russia (alleged extremism), France (likewise), and India (alleged facilitation of national exam leaking/cheating). I'm guessing the latter since it's the most recent and arguably has the most fiscal heft. Also very surprised to see Telegram was reliant on GoDaddy, notorious for its lack of transparency.

indolering 4mo ago
Montenegro (.me) seems to be aligned with the EU. But I would have expected there to see a legal ruling in France before Montenegro would do this sort of thing. I wouldn't be surprised if GoDaddy caved to request. They are known for giving up domains to anyone with a badge and a fax machine!
- dylan604 4mo ago
  Is the badge really that much of a requirement? I mean, if you have a fax machine, you must be a legit source to make that request.
- inigyou 4mo ago
  serverHold status means registry, not registrar, hold - the relevant protocol (not WHOIS) has the registry as the server, as you'd expect. But you are right about GoDaddy and they are a strange choice.
  - KomoD 4mo ago
    Yep. clientHold = registrar (GoDaddy) serverHold = registry (Montenegrin Registry)
    - orbital-decay 4mo ago
      IIRC Telegram has some kind of direct partnership with .me registry. I wonder if it's related
ilaksh 4mo ago
But Telegram hasn't engaged in that, some of their users have. I think the issue might be that although Telegram has a lot of abuse takedown activity, they do not permit access or direct action by authorities. If I recall, they have reiterated many times that some level or types of messages always remain private. Maybe that's the issue is that a lot of illicit activity is going on in private channels and whether or not their filtering addresses it at all, authorities see the activity and have no access for court cases or direct action against it, so they can imagine it is quite rampant.
- axus 4mo ago
  Not every country has DMCA safe harbor for service providers. A crap sandwich may taste horrible but it has bread.
- kajman 4mo ago
  I always figured telegram got the screws turned on them all the time because their lack of E2E encryption meant it was viable to demand they proactively police the platform in the first place. Maybe Signal would just be outright blocked in these locales if it was anywhere near as popular, though.
  - milkshakes 4mo ago
    in fact, telegram does support e2e encryption ("secret chats")
    - ivanmontillam 4mo ago
      It does, but it's not enabled by default; and that's the point.
    - distances 4mo ago
      I've been in quite many Telegram chats, none of which has enabled it. For most practical purposes you can just consider Telegram not to have e2e since it's no good if it's not used.
  - 4mo ago
codedokode 4mo ago
In Russia, "extremism" is being against Putin or the war. For example, posting photo of Alexey Navalny is "displaying extremism symbol". Also, there are people charged with extremism for posting a link to instagram/facebook domains (Meta is an extremist organization). Also "facilitation of exam cheating" is the most stupid accusation. Why they cannot keep exam question in secret? Also why they do not shutdown scammer call centers which scam Westerners? So they want Telegram to be blocked but scammer call center to continue operating?
- vlian2088 4mo ago
  >In Russia, "extremism" is being against Putin or the war. In Russia, "extremism" is whatever the state decides it to be. "Give me the man, and I will find the crime" has always been its modus operandi. the last people who might have got fair trial were nobles under the Tzar.
- hekkle 4mo ago
  > So they want Telegram to be blocked but scammer call center to continue operating? Obviously yes, follow the money. Call centers use BSNL which is a state-owned telco, the government gets a cut of every call made. Telegram doesn't give the government any incentive to keep it around.

indolering 4mo ago

Montenegro (.me) seems to be aligned with the EU. But I would have expected there to see a legal ruling in France before Montenegro would do this sort of thing. I wouldn't be surprised if GoDaddy caved to request. They are known for giving up domains to anyone with a badge and a fax machine!

dylan604 4mo ago
Is the badge really that much of a requirement? I mean, if you have a fax machine, you must be a legit source to make that request.
inigyou 4mo ago
serverHold status means registry, not registrar, hold - the relevant protocol (not WHOIS) has the registry as the server, as you'd expect. But you are right about GoDaddy and they are a strange choice.
- KomoD 4mo ago
  Yep. clientHold = registrar (GoDaddy) serverHold = registry (Montenegrin Registry)
  - orbital-decay 4mo ago
    IIRC Telegram has some kind of direct partnership with .me registry. I wonder if it's related

ilaksh 4mo ago

But Telegram hasn't engaged in that, some of their users have. I think the issue might be that although Telegram has a lot of abuse takedown activity, they do not permit access or direct action by authorities. If I recall, they have reiterated many times that some level or types of messages always remain private. Maybe that's the issue is that a lot of illicit activity is going on in private channels and whether or not their filtering addresses it at all, authorities see the activity and have no access for court cases or direct action against it, so they can imagine it is quite rampant.

axus 4mo ago
Not every country has DMCA safe harbor for service providers. A crap sandwich may taste horrible but it has bread.
kajman 4mo ago
I always figured telegram got the screws turned on them all the time because their lack of E2E encryption meant it was viable to demand they proactively police the platform in the first place. Maybe Signal would just be outright blocked in these locales if it was anywhere near as popular, though.
- milkshakes 4mo ago
  in fact, telegram does support e2e encryption ("secret chats")
  - ivanmontillam 4mo ago
    It does, but it's not enabled by default; and that's the point.
  - distances 4mo ago
    I've been in quite many Telegram chats, none of which has enabled it. For most practical purposes you can just consider Telegram not to have e2e since it's no good if it's not used.
- 4mo ago

codedokode 4mo ago

In Russia, "extremism" is being against Putin or the war. For example, posting photo of Alexey Navalny is "displaying extremism symbol". Also, there are people charged with extremism for posting a link to instagram/facebook domains (Meta is an extremist organization). Also "facilitation of exam cheating" is the most stupid accusation. Why they cannot keep exam question in secret? Also why they do not shutdown scammer call centers which scam Westerners? So they want Telegram to be blocked but scammer call center to continue operating?

vlian2088 4mo ago
>In Russia, "extremism" is being against Putin or the war. In Russia, "extremism" is whatever the state decides it to be. "Give me the man, and I will find the crime" has always been its modus operandi. the last people who might have got fair trial were nobles under the Tzar.
hekkle 4mo ago
> So they want Telegram to be blocked but scammer call center to continue operating? Obviously yes, follow the money. Call centers use BSNL which is a state-owned telco, the government gets a cut of every call made. Telegram doesn't give the government any incentive to keep it around.