this post was submitted on 24 Aug 2024
250 points (98.8% liked)

World News

39046 readers
2488 users here now

A community for discussing events around the World

Rules:

Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.


Lemmy World Partners

News !news@lemmy.world

Politics !politics@lemmy.world

World Politics !globalpolitics@lemmy.world


Recommendations

For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] conciselyverbose@sh.itjust.works 89 points 2 months ago (4 children)

What a fucking horseshit excuse for law enforcement.

Encrypted communication should be a human right.

[–] einkorn@feddit.org 61 points 2 months ago

The issue I see with Telegram is that they retain a certain control over the content on their platform, as they have blocked channels in the past. That's unlike for example Signal, which only acts as a carrier for the encrypted data.

If they have control over what people are able to share via their platform, the relevant laws should apply, imho.

[–] xnx@slrpnk.net 40 points 2 months ago

I agree but its not even an encrypted messenger. Almost no one uses the weak encryption and im pretty sure they offer decryption to governments considering they were threatened to be banned in russia and avoided it

[–] sugartits@lemmy.world 33 points 2 months ago (3 children)

What has encryption got to do with it?

Most of telegram is not encrypted. There are unencrypted channels on telegram right now hosting child pornography. Telegram never removes them.

[–] todd_bonzalez@lemm.ee 1 points 2 months ago

Telegram and VK are both CSAM cesspits. Most of Russian social media has this problem, but VK and Telegram are where you'll end up exposed to shit just by browsing.

[–] HelixDab2@lemm.ee 1 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Good. They shouldn't.

Unencrypted channels are the ones that are easiest to trace, and the easiest ones to successfully base a prosecution on.

The most correct response is to report them to law enforcement. Unencrypted channels make amazingly effective honeypots. It's fairly easy to bust people using unencrypted channels, esp. because people think they're anonymous and safe. It's much, much harder to bust people once they move to .onion sites and the real dark net away from their phone. When you shut down all the easy channels, you push people into areas where it's much harder, almost impossible, to root them out.

[–] todd_bonzalez@lemm.ee 7 points 2 months ago

Look, if you're going to knowingly host child porn, and not take it down even after you have been made aware, you get what's coming to you.

The idea that Telegram would somehow better serve their customers by staging law enforcement stings in unencrypted channels is completely divorced from Telegram's core mission.

This has nothing to do with freedom of speech or the right to encrypt. Child Pornography is a criminal matter. Failure to cooperate with law enforcement while providing comms and distribution to child pornographers is going to land you in deep shit eventually.

[–] whereisk@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago (2 children)

What if telegram refuses to cooperate with law enforcement in a timely fashion to provide details of the people sharing that material? What should law enforcement do then?

[–] prettybunnys@sh.itjust.works 5 points 2 months ago

At that point they’re willingly hosting it for no reason other than to host it for their customers and they’re complicit, no?

[–] HelixDab2@lemm.ee 1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

I think that holding the executives and BoD in criminal contempt of court is a good place to start.

EDIT: AFAIK Telegram doesn't use warrant canaries.

[–] kescusay@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago (4 children)

Yes, but... I mean, it is being used for all of that.

[–] conciselyverbose@sh.itjust.works 22 points 2 months ago

It doesn't matter in the slightest.

Making a tool that provides a private communication service literally everyone should have unrestricted access to does not make you an accomplice to anything.

[–] Deceptichum@quokk.au 14 points 2 months ago (2 children)

So is the Internet, better go arrest my ISP.

[–] lennybird@lemmy.world 9 points 2 months ago (1 children)

The ISP will absolutely cooperate with law enforcement though, unlike telegram. That seems the nature of the issue in that there is a lack of moderation and oversight, which anonymity is not mutually-exclusive from flagging nefarious activities, ideally. I REALLY am not too keen on giving safe harbor to the likes of pedos and traffickers and what have you.

[–] Rivalarrival 9 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I REALLY am not too keen on giving safe harbor to the likes of pedos and traffickers and what have you.

Secure communication between individuals is a fundamental right. That nefarious activities can be conducted over secure channels can never be justification for suspending that right.

[–] stupidcasey@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago

Why? They happily hand all your data over to whoever asks and so does everyone else that’s why they can single them out because you’re already bought and paid for.

[–] webghost0101@sopuli.xyz 8 points 2 months ago

It is but so are phones and computers in general. Same with cars, many crimes require transportation.

As always, there's a lot of nuance which is lost on Lemmy users.

It's a question of exactly what telegram is being used for, what telegram the company can reasonably be aware of, what they've been asked to do, and what they've done.