Telegram is more a social media than a messenger app, group chats and channels can’t be encrypted but 1 to 1 chats can be
I’ve been in channels and group chats about Ukraine since 2014 (unencrypted as I said) and nothing serious ever happened,
no censorship, no ban (from Telegram I mean), russian trolls raids from time to time but easily contained
I wouldn’t use Telegram for day to day communication but to stay informed about what matters to you without big risks of censorship it’s great
Do you at least use a VPN? Doesn't the app collect a ton of identifying info as well as your phone number which can be linked to you?
Even if you can encrypt, they likely have a backdoor at Russian insistance.
I agree with the backdoor risks, that’s why I don’t recommend it for safe communication, I know that Telegram is partially open source now, but I can’t remember if it applies to the encryption
Yes I do use a VPN, 24h 7/7, changing server everyday. regarding their data collection, it’s about the same as WhatsApp for exemple, the difference is in which government will they comply with, if you are american for example, you better have your data in russia with Telegram
Yes they have your phone number but you can easily rent an anonymous number to use services that require it, and even then, if you do not plan to become a gun dealer, you just set a username and hide your phone number everything will be okay (again, for the social media use case)