Telegram sees 3 million new users following Facebook outage

[kuhnertdm]

Source: https://techcrunch.com/2019/03/14/telegram-gets-3m-new-signups-during-facebook-apps-outage/

 

During most of yesterday, social media giant Facebook was unavailable for use, along with related apps and websites. It seems that the competition has benefited greatly: Telegram founder Pavel Durov announced on the Telegram platform today that he was seeing 3 million new signups in the last 24 hours. He did not specifically mention Facebook or the outage, but did drop the words "true privacy" in a possible jab at Facebook's notoriety for abysmal user privacy.

 

Telegram is a chat app that boasts a focus on privacy and encryption to make sure that only those who are intended by a user to see a message, will see it. The app has faced legal issues including blocks in nations such as Russia, which tried unsuccessfully to compel Telegram to provide encryption backdoors to the Russian government.

 

The app is not without its own shortcomings, though. Telegram does not enable end-to-end encryption by default, which is not immediately apparent to users. In addition, there has been contention on the merits of Telegram's encryption protocol versus the newer Signal protocol, used by the Signal app and others such as the popular WhatsApp. Both Signal and WhatsApp enable end-to-end encryption by default. However, much of the reasoning for signing up for Telegram versus Signal or WhatsApp may come from Telegram's more simple interface and improved usability.

[aezakmi]

>"true privacy"

>wants a phone number in order to register

 

KEK

[Guest]

It’s nice of those 3 million Android uses to do so.

[noir]

9 hours ago, aezakmi said:

>"true privacy"

>wants a phone number in order to register

 

KEK

You don't need to identify yourself when buying a sim card.

Also, this feature lets you see all your friends who are on the app

[Goldilock]

19 minutes ago, noir said:

You don't need to identify yourself when buying a sim card.

Also, this feature lets you see all your friends who are on the app

In Indonesia, you have to input identity card data (+photo) to activate SIM Card.

[Teddy07]

crazy how many people are so addicted to social media that they can´t even take off for a few hours

[NeuesTestament]

2 hours ago, noir said:

You don't need to identify yourself when buying a sim card.

Also, this feature lets you see all your friends who are on the app

Correct me if I am wrong but I think in the EU you have to since a change in legislation recently 

[Princess Luna]

I have been using Telegram for ages, best IM there is.

[noir]

2 hours ago, NeuesTestament said:

Correct me if I am wrong but I think in the EU you have to since a change in legislation recently 

The whole EU, no, but there are a couple countries Like Sweden and Denmark i think, and as mentioned above Indonesia.

[DrMacintosh]

tbh not a big fan of Telegram. There does not seem to be a way to register without a phone number, they have also caved to moderating content. 

[Beskamir]

Disappointing that people weren't switching to signal. It's far more privacy focused.

[RejZoR]

6 minutes ago, ElfFriend said:

Disappointing that people weren't switching to signal. It's far more privacy focused.

This. I have trust issues with Telegram. Not only it doesn't have actual E2E encryption of communication, it's controlled by Arabs. Call me prejudicial or racist, but lets be honest, they are rubbish when it comes to human rights. Signal on the other hand is open source, does have E2E and is an American company. Americans kinda have better track record with that...

[Beskamir]

2 hours ago, RejZoR said:

This. I have trust issues with Telegram. Not only it doesn't have actual E2E encryption of communication, it's controlled by Arabs. Call me prejudicial or racist, but lets be honest, they are rubbish when it comes to human rights. Signal on the other hand is open source, does have E2E and is an American company. Americans kinda have better track record with that...

I've got 0 issues with where the devs are located or who they are as long as it's open source.

[Andreas Lilja]

15 hours ago, Teddy07 said:

crazy how many people are so addicted to social media that they can´t even take off for a few hours

Messenger out is a bigger concern than Facebook itself. I don't text anymore, everyone is on Messenger. 

[RejZoR]

4 hours ago, Raskolnikov said:

Messenger out is a bigger concern than Facebook itself. I don't text anymore, everyone is on Messenger. 

I'm still using old SMS and sometimes MMS. Call me old fashioned, but the thing just (still) works and anyone with a phone can receive it. With bunch of these messengers, you specifically need to use one or you're unreachable. So, that's an issue if you need to tell everyone "yo, I'm only on Signal so it would be nice if you use that". Then imagine you have bunch of contacts all using different stuff and you end up using 5 messaging clients because of that. With SMS, I only need to own a phone. I can cram as much text as I want in them and dumb emojis and other garbage are the last thing I want to see in them. So, SMS it is.

[elfensky]

On 3/15/2019 at 9:57 AM, noir said:

You don't need to identify yourself when buying a sim card.

Also, this feature lets you see all your friends who are on the app

You do in most of (west) Europe and the USA as far as I know. More and more countries require you to identify yourself after the phone-bomb attacks in Brussels.

[Derangel]

Why is everyone talking about buying SIM cards? Google Voice and other VOIP numbers work with Telegram.

[Anomnomnomaly]

On 3/16/2019 at 6:06 AM, RejZoR said:

I'm still using old SMS and sometimes MMS. Call me old fashioned, but the thing just (still) works and anyone with a phone can receive it. With bunch of these messengers, you specifically need to use one or you're unreachable. So, that's an issue if you need to tell everyone "yo, I'm only on Signal so it would be nice if you use that". Then imagine you have bunch of contacts all using different stuff and you end up using 5 messaging clients because of that. With SMS, I only need to own a phone. I can cram as much text as I want in them and dumb emojis and other garbage are the last thing I want to see in them. So, SMS it is.

 

This is already a huge problem... I refuse to use anything owned by facebook... 99% of everyone I know uses FB & Messenger or Whatsapp and so forth... and flatly refuses to use anything else... they've seemingly lost the ability to communicate by any other means... Often complaining that 'you're not on facebook' to me so can't keep in touch. It's almost like they're not aware of any other form of communication exists outside of their tiny narrow minded bubble.

 

To be honest.. I no longer consider them friends... because it's a two way street and when once side demands you use a specific app to keep in touch and they refuse to do it any other way., they've lost touch with rationality and reality and have become a shallow, selfish & ignorant human being... I'm better of without that kind of person in my life.