Tech billionaire Pavel Durov’s arrest in France has reignited debate in Russia over the Telegram messenger app’s role in the war in Ukraine. The last round of discussion surrounding the issue came as recently as July, when the State Duma passed a law allowing new punishments for soldiers who use “civilian” devices while deployed. After a wave of criticism from pro-war bloggers and state media “war correspondents” who feared the new policy would leave Russian troops with no reliable means of communication, the law was watered down. Now, the same groups are discussing whether the “keys to Telegram” are at risk of being handed over to the West, and whether the messenger could be blocked by the Russian authorities. According to these commentators, Telegram has become the main communication tool of the war, linking various military branches and hierarchy levels into a single management, intelligence sharing, and target engagement complex, though this is a gross exaggeration. Meduza explains what we know about how the Russian military actually uses Telegram, what other programs its uses for battlefield communication, and why it still hasn’t developed its own platform to replace the Dubai-based app.
How do you market an encryption platform exclusively to criminals?
Apparently through word of mouth and suggestions by undercover agents.
innocents that downloaded this as a secure messaging system
The app wasn’t made available for download. The FBI bought a few thousand Pixels, flashed a custom ROM onto them, and then installed the messaging apps. In theory they cost thousands of dollars to buy.
It’s entirely possible some innocents used the system, but it’s unclear how selling rooted hardware to alleged criminals would induce them to commit crime.
Apparently through word of mouth and suggestions by undercover agents.
The app wasn’t made available for download. The FBI bought a few thousand Pixels, flashed a custom ROM onto them, and then installed the messaging apps. In theory they cost thousands of dollars to buy.
It’s entirely possible some innocents used the system, but it’s unclear how selling rooted hardware to alleged criminals would induce them to commit crime.
See https://www.npr.org/2024/05/31/1197959218/fbi-phone-company-anom