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Telegram removed from the App Store for 'inappropriate content'

222 points| wafflesraccoon | 8 years ago |theverge.com

156 comments

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[+] igloofoo|8 years ago|reply
There may be political motive to this.

Why is Telegram X issued by "Telegram Messenger LLP" while the original Telegram is issued by "Telegram LLC"?

Telegram LLC, which issues the original Telegram app on the App Store has been undergoing litigation with regards to its ownership. It is based out of Russia and a company called UCP with Krelim ties who 'bought' VKontakte has been suing Durov for full Telegram ownership pursuant to VKontakte 'purchase'.

Telegram Messenger LLP however is based in London and seemingly wholly owned by Durov crew. In 2014, Telegram Messenger LLP launched Telegram HD, a separate app from Telegram-LLC-issued-Telegram. Now it is launching Telegram X , another separate app (which was until very recently Challegram, an open source Telegram client, winner of Telegram contest, and purchased by Durov) .

Draw your own conclusions.

EDITED for clarity and details

https://themoscowtimes.com/articles/the-telegram-lawsuits-ex...

http://www.ewdn.com/2014/07/29/pavel-durov-has-cloned-telegr...

https://rusletter.com/articles/ucp_requires_to_recognize_tel...

http://www.frandroid.com/android/applications/securite-appli...

[+] debt|8 years ago|reply
Apple would be held liable if someone uses Telegram to coordinate a terrorist attack or if it's used for human trafficking or whatever highly illegal activity it could be used for. Potentially both in the court of law and the court of public opinion; the latter Apple has no control over.

It's just not worth it financially for Apple to assume that liability.

[+] mcguire|8 years ago|reply
"Telegram has risen in popularity thanks to its focus on advanced security features and the ability to hold secret conversations with end-to-end encryption. ... Telegram was forced to create a team of moderators in Indonesia to remove “terrorist-related content” after the Indonesian government threatened to ban the messaging app."

Wait, how does that work?

[+] maxerickson|8 years ago|reply
The secure chats are opt in. The normal mode shares everything with the server.
[+] pr0ph3t|8 years ago|reply
Telegram has public channels that aren't encrypted.
[+] Animats|8 years ago|reply
Because it allows users to send inappropriate content?

What next, automatic voice censorship? That's technically feasible now.

[+] morganvachon|8 years ago|reply
It may have been triggered by one of the sets of "stickers" available as alternatives to emoji. I've browsed through them and while they all seem PG-13 or tamer to me, I can see how someone with sensitivity towards suggestive cartoons would be offended. There are a few with female cartoons showing cleavage, and at least one that is obviously targeted at furries.
[+] module0000|8 years ago|reply
>> What next, automatic voice censorship?

Yes. The manual from 1984 is being followed in an uncanny fashion.

[+] pentae|8 years ago|reply
Ahh the app store. It's just like the internet, except the websites are mini apps, and a mega corporation gets to control whats on it. And takes 30% of everything you make. Brilliant.
[+] squarefoot|8 years ago|reply
"except the websites are mini apps, and a mega corporation gets to control whats on it"

There is more to it. Using apps instead of websites we're killing the whole concept of making information and services available using a standard protocol. That's like going back over 30 years, even before gopher. Then there is the cloud->mainframe similarity, with data and services being moved somewhere into the net where the user has no control over his/her own data, and the whole email/usenet->social media migration which puts private and public communications in the hands of corporations having no intention of guaranteeing interoperability with competing systems.

Basically the industry screwed 40+ years of IT development, not just in a technical way, but they did it behind shiny graphics and animated emoticons, so nobody really cares.

[+] mherdeg|8 years ago|reply
The ebb and flow is kind of neat to watch.

(1) Load AOL and visit keyword "UBER" to get started requesting a car now!

(2) Type UBER into your web browser location bar then hit control-enter to visit http://UBER.com/ and get started requesting a car now!

(3) Load your app store and search for "UBER" to get started requesting a car now!

[+] Turing_Machine|8 years ago|reply
> And takes 30% of everything you make.

Compared to a website, where you get to keep 100% of zero?

Users will pay for apps (not much, as a rule, but something), but will not pay for web sites. Third-party advertisers might pay, if you're lucky, and if you don't mind treating your users as a commodity, but the users themselves will not.

[+] tw1010|8 years ago|reply
And the incentive/risk tradeoff is too much in favour of the former for optimistic entrepreneurs to ever think they'll be affected by something like this.
[+] debt|8 years ago|reply
It's supposedly more secure than the normal internet.

But ya figure for a large company of creative geniuses they could figure out how to democratize security so that the whole system isn't wholly owned and controlled by a single entity.

[+] danpalmer|8 years ago|reply
Ahh the App Store. It's just like the Play Store, except no viruses, far fewer scam apps, and there's a legitimate and thriving market for paid apps.
[+] pastastickers|8 years ago|reply
And how much does it cost to build and maintain your own domain, storage, delivery/updates infrastructure and billing system? Oh, and how about marketing for your app?
[+] gpmcadam|8 years ago|reply
Ahh the race track. It's just like the highway, except the roads are smaller and a corporation gets to control who drives on it. And they make you pay to use it. Brilliant.
[+] jmull|8 years ago|reply
I'm not sure why anyone argues against Apple's 30% cut like this. It's app developers who make the determination whether the cost is worth the benefit.

As you point out, there are alternatives. Why do you think developers have massively and overwhelmingly opted-in?

[+] artificial|8 years ago|reply
Which internet are you on that requires 30% of all made on it? If news is any indicator the vast majority of people have no interest in paying for and even reading the content - the headline will suffice. Curation has its merits, for example not nearly as many trojaned clones. Ransomware does not exist. Ahhh users, bless them. The public daily demonstrates a lack of interest in owning and operating a well maintained and updatable/ed device.
[+] thanatropism|8 years ago|reply
Every social network has a "weird" subset. "Weird facebook" is circularly-referencing visual memes. Weird Telegram is people who mix their Deleuze and Bataille and come up with something like the Andy Kaufmann version of witchcraft mysticism.

I mean, it's awesome.

[+] kragen|8 years ago|reply
Any open communications network will have inappropriate content, more or less by definition — if not immediately, then once it grows to have a lot of users.
[+] ohiovr|8 years ago|reply
Isn't LibreTaxi based on telegram? My brother expressed an interest in making his own one man cab company and i mentioned alternatives to uber and lyft and one of them was libretaxi. I had no knowledge of what it did or how it worked but we were looking at it literally just the other day and now it is gone. My brother can't use lyft because he doesn't have a good enough car for them and uber doesn't cater to our small town. So scrach libretaxi off too.
[+] mahemm|8 years ago|reply
Following all of the negative press Signal has gotten recently, I feel it's unethical to let a Telegram post pass without a reminder that they don't even bother to encrypt group chats, and that there is still no proof whatsoever that their protocol is secure.
[+] verytrivial|8 years ago|reply
> Following all of the negative press Signal has gotten about security flaws

Sorry, what? Can you show me where Signal has been implicated in flaws? There are some stories about security agencies bypassing Signal, but that is true on any hardware platform you didn't wire-wrap yourself.

[+] webninja|8 years ago|reply
I still see the original Telegram app on Apple’s AppStore. I’ve been using Telegram app for a couple of months and it matches the same app I have installed. I don’t like waving the “Fake News” flag prematurely, but this seems like an appropriate time to start waving it.
[+] qwerty456127|8 years ago|reply
Why not remove Chrome, Safari and E-mail clients for inappropriate content too? Why not WhatsApp, Skype or iMessage? Telegram is just a wire, it's up to the users if they want to use it to talk to other users that speak 'inappropriate'.

This is why I will never buy an iPhone (though I don't mind a MacBook as long as root access and legal ways to install Linux have not been locked on them yet) - I want to use the device the way I want, have full control over its filesystem, run the apps I want without all that store bullshit (which hits even harder if you live outside the USA by the way, in synergy with your local government bullshit and with what corporations think about your region market) and decide what is appropriate for me myself.

Today Apple is a fascist organization. Historical fascists did fairly good in eye-candy design and hardware quality too but that's the only good part of them and it's pretty much ruined by so much crazy fascist bullshit to tolerate in exchange.

[+] donarb|8 years ago|reply
No fascism here, just a buggy program. All the developer has to do is to follow Apple's rules whereby the user is given the opportunity to control inappropriate content. As was mentioned in the article, the developer expects to fix their filters and resubmit the program.
[+] kevin_b_er|8 years ago|reply

[deleted]

[+] mbesto|8 years ago|reply
This is totally unfounded...stop spreading FUD without legitimate sources.

WhatsApp, Signal, Wire...

[+] mitchty|8 years ago|reply
> Secure communication is not possible on iOS because Apple does not permit it.

Explain Signal then, otherwise citation needed.

[+] djsumdog|8 years ago|reply
Are there no end-to-end encrypted communication apps in the Apple store/iOS? I know it's an option (that no one uses) in Facebook.

It's kinda ironic since Apple refused to break encryption on their own devices for the FBI.

[+] mathiasben|8 years ago|reply
Aren't there PGP clients available through the app store?