Tom’s Guide: Telegram: What it is and how to use it. “There are plenty of WhatsApp alternatives for those who want to break free of Facebook’s ecosystem and Telegram is one of the more popular choices. Back in 2020, Telegram’s founder, Pavel Durov, revealed that the messaging platform had nearly 500 million active users and as it stands now, there are over 700 million monthly active users(opens in new tab).”
Rolling Stone: They Used Telegram to Organize a Dog-Fighting Ring. Now, They’re Facing Federal Charges. “A GRAND-JURY INDICTMENT filed in federal court last month reveals authorities conducted a years-long investigation into how a depraved group of individuals located in and around the greater Washington, D.C., area utilized the messaging app Telegram to operate an underground dog-fighting venture, regularly sharing tips on a variety of inhumane training methods and boasting about killing weaker dogs.”
WIRED: The Telegram-Powered News Outlet Waging Guerrilla War on Russia. “Created by exiled former Russian MP and dissident Ilya Ponomarev, February Morning was the first to report on a group claiming responsibility for [Darya] Dugina’s death. Ponomarev himself took to YouTube, where February Morning airs its shows, claiming that the perpetrators were a little-known Russian resistance group called the National Republican Army. According to Ponomarev, an all-out war against “Putinism” had just begun.”
Jerusalem Post: Russia’s state watchdog restricts TikTok, Zoom and other IT companies . “Russia’s state communications watchdog Roskomnadzor said on Friday that it was taking punitive measures against a string of foreign IT companies including TikTok, Telegram, Zoom, Discord and Pinterest, according to Russian media.”
Intel 471: How cybercriminals are using messaging apps to launch malware schemes. ” Apps like Discord and Telegram have underlying elements that allow users to create and share programs or other types of content that’s used inside the platform. These programs, colloquially known as ‘bots,’ or other content allows for users to share media, play games, moderate channels, or any other automated task a developer can devise. Cybercriminals have figured out how to leverage this for their own begotten gains.”
University of Oxford: UN report: Oxford analysis reveals up to half of Holocaust-related content on Telegram denies or distorts facts . “Distortion and Holocaust denial is present on all social media platforms, but moderation and education can significantly reduce this, according to a landmark report today from UNESCO and the United Nations, supported by analysis by researchers from the Oxford Internet Institute.”
Motherboard: Ukrainians Will Write Your Message on Munitions Aimed at Russians for Donations. “A Ukrainian Telegram account is offering to write a message of your choice on artillery shells that will then be fired at Russian in exchange for $40 per message. The account claims that the funds it raises will go towards arming Ukrainian soldiers.”
The Register: Telegram criticizes Apple for ‘intentionally crippling’ web app features on iOS. “A week after confirming plans for Telegram Premium, the messaging platform’s CEO, Pavel Durov, is again criticizing Apple’s approach to its Safari browser for stifling the efforts of web developers.”
How-To Geek: Telegram’s Premium Subscription Is Coming in June. “Telegram, a popular messaging app, has been planning a premium option since at least 2020 to support development costs. Now we have our first details about the upcoming subscription, called Telegram Premium.”
Frontier Myanmar: Pro-military death squad rallies openly on social media. “After tea shop owner U Khin Maung Thein was abducted and killed in April, pictures of his body were uploaded to the social media platform Telegram. Hanging around his neck, over his bloodstained shirt, was a lanyard with a strange symbol: a red circle with an image of an ancient Burmese warrior holding two swords. This is the calling card of Thwe Thauk Apwe, a new pro-military vigilante group whose violent rise has played out over social media, particularly Facebook and Telegram.”
Poynter: In Brazil, Telegram adds measures to block misleading information ahead of elections. “Telegram was evading emails from Brazilian authorities for months, until mid-March this year, when the Brazilian Supreme Court ruled to ban the application over misinformation concerns ahead of the country’s elections. Two days later, Telegram complied with the court’s requests, which included deleting a few of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s posts and suspending the account of one of his prominent acolytes. The court rescinded its embargo and not long after, Telegram and the Brazilian Electoral Court signed a cooperation agreement.”
Global Investigative Journalism Network: How Journalists Can Investigate on Telegram. “Telegram can also be an invaluable research tool, allowing journalists to mine information and investigate groups of people whose content is otherwise banned or limited on other social networks (often for violating terms of use or hate speech laws). It’s also useful to track protests and other social movements in authoritarian countries, like Russia, where the app still functions.”
CyberScoop: Network of hyperlocal Russian Telegram channels spew disinformation in occupied Ukraine. “The Russian disinformation effort in Ukraine is so extensive that it now includes a hyperlocal Telegram network which spews disinformation customized to resonate in individual towns across occupied Ukraine, according to recent research published by the Ukrainian think tank Detector Media.”
Radio Free Europe: ‘The Future Of The Country’: Russian Activist Creates Database Of Schools That Use Children In Pro-War Demonstrations. “The Telegram channel, Oni Za Voinu! (They Are For The War!), is the brainchild of 36-year-old Dmitry Tsibiryov, a former coordinator for imprisoned opposition politician Aleksei Navalny from the Saratov region, on the Volga River. Tsibiryov left Russia in 2021, shortly after the organizations connected with Navalny were banned as ‘extremist’ and law enforcement began opening criminal cases against people who had worked for them.”
New York Times: I Followed Some of Brazil’s Right-Wing Telegram Groups. I Found a Tide of Madness.. “In Brazil, fake news seems to be something that the population at large seems to fall victim to — Telegram just offers the sort of deepest rabbit hole you can go down. So I knew — from horrible, eye-sapping experience — that for many right-wing activists, fake news has become an article of faith, a weapon of war, the surest way of muddling the public discussion.”
