Not even remotely surprised. CSAM is apparently rife on the app, and is easy to find because there are accounts across every major social media platform openly spamming Telegram channel links. In...
Not even remotely surprised.
CSAM is apparently rife on the app, and is easy to find because there are accounts across every major social media platform openly spamming Telegram channel links. In the case of Instagram and similar image-focused platforms, the burner accounts are also posting jailbait to entice pedophiles. We are talking levels of sickfuckery where the people running scam operations trying to swindle pedos out of their money are the lesser of two evils.
A decade ago I was pro free speech and opposed efforts to break encryption, push mass surveillance on internet activity, etc. Nowadays I'm far more against a free and open internet, and CSAM is a big reason why.
End to end encryption is a nightmare for law enforcement, especially with zero backdoors.
I think it's been mentioned a few times already, but end-to-end (E2E) encryption feels like a red herring is this particular case. Illicit activity is occurring largely in public groups, which are...
End to end encryption is a nightmare for law enforcement, especially with zero backdoors.
I think it's been mentioned a few times already, but end-to-end (E2E) encryption feels like a red herring is this particular case.
Illicit activity is occurring largely in public groups, which are not E2E encrypted on Telegram.
For direct messaging, E2E encryption is opt-in and must be set-up per chat, so I suspect the feature is underutilized anyway.
E2E encryption is not incompatible with moderation! WhatsApp, for example, doesn't have Telegram's problems despite having E2E encryption by default. If someone wishes to report a conversation, a portion of the conversation will be forwarded to moderators, who will then take appropriate action. (Note that this is conceptually similar to taking a screenshot and forwarding it to moderators.)
Telegram's problems stem almost entirely from its lack of moderation, as documented here
As a point of contrast, most social media platforms proactively scan for CSAM and report it using tools like PhotoDNA. My understanding is that Telegram does not. In addition, for the violations that are manually reported, Telegram does not appear to cooperate with law enforcement agencies as a matter of policy.
What's your stance on encryption now? IMO it's obvious that laws that try to push for "government-only" backdoors and making encryption illegal will only inconvenience the law abiding citizens and...
A decade ago I was pro free speech and opposed efforts to break encryption
End to end encryption is a nightmare for law enforcement, especially with zero backdoors.
What's your stance on encryption now? IMO it's obvious that laws that try to push for "government-only" backdoors and making encryption illegal will only inconvenience the law abiding citizens and make them less safe (because those backdoors and laws will be abused), while criminals will just use different messaging services.
only slightly on topic, and not much to add, but... how deep in the degeneracy do you have to be to see those public links, and then /follow them/, and not think that its a honey pot at the same...
only slightly on topic, and not much to add, but...
how deep in the degeneracy do you have to be to see those public links, and then /follow them/, and not think that its a honey pot at the same time? i know its near useless to try and assign logic to a decision made emotionally, but the risk vs reward for that kind of thing seems astronomical to me, especially when the links come from bot accounts on the clear net.
Yeah when we talk about these unmoderated platforms our heads tend to jump to extremist politics and forget that these places are often riddled with CP.
Yeah when we talk about these unmoderated platforms our heads tend to jump to extremist politics and forget that these places are often riddled with CP.
It's one of the leading arguments for why encryption is bad when in the hands of the general public. There are a lot of depraved people out there. I remember back to the days of early Internet and...
It's one of the leading arguments for why encryption is bad when in the hands of the general public.
There are a lot of depraved people out there. I remember back to the days of early Internet and "Cheese Pizza" was the code word, and the evil fuckers used to use an image swirl to hide their identities.
I was so happy when they reversed that swirl to identify people and then found them. I really don't know how good people work with what they have to see daily to crack down on these criminals, but I'm thankful for them.
E2E is definitely double edged. I use Signal from privacy from big corps tracking my every location and hitting me and friends with targeted ads, but if you have a mobile they can still track your device by cell tower pings. You cannot get too far away from it in the modern day and age without a lot of tinfoil.
Not even remotely surprised.
CSAM is apparently rife on the app, and is easy to find because there are accounts across every major social media platform openly spamming Telegram channel links. In the case of Instagram and similar image-focused platforms, the burner accounts are also posting jailbait to entice pedophiles. We are talking levels of sickfuckery where the people running scam operations trying to swindle pedos out of their money are the lesser of two evils.
A decade ago I was pro free speech and opposed efforts to break encryption, push mass surveillance on internet activity, etc. Nowadays I'm far more against a free and open internet, and CSAM is a big reason why.
End to end encryption is a nightmare for law enforcement, especially with zero backdoors.
I think it's been mentioned a few times already, but end-to-end (E2E) encryption feels like a red herring is this particular case.
Telegram's problems stem almost entirely from its lack of moderation, as documented here
As a point of contrast, most social media platforms proactively scan for CSAM and report it using tools like PhotoDNA. My understanding is that Telegram does not. In addition, for the violations that are manually reported, Telegram does not appear to cooperate with law enforcement agencies as a matter of policy.
What's your stance on encryption now? IMO it's obvious that laws that try to push for "government-only" backdoors and making encryption illegal will only inconvenience the law abiding citizens and make them less safe (because those backdoors and laws will be abused), while criminals will just use different messaging services.
only slightly on topic, and not much to add, but...
how deep in the degeneracy do you have to be to see those public links, and then /follow them/, and not think that its a honey pot at the same time? i know its near useless to try and assign logic to a decision made emotionally, but the risk vs reward for that kind of thing seems astronomical to me, especially when the links come from bot accounts on the clear net.
The initial arrest was discussed here: https://tildes.net/~tech/1idh/telegram_messaging_app_ceo_pavel_durov_arrested_in_france
Had a feeling CSAM might have been the real reason, offering "encrypted messaging" didn't really seem like a good reason on its own.
Yeah when we talk about these unmoderated platforms our heads tend to jump to extremist politics and forget that these places are often riddled with CP.
It's one of the leading arguments for why encryption is bad when in the hands of the general public.
There are a lot of depraved people out there. I remember back to the days of early Internet and "Cheese Pizza" was the code word, and the evil fuckers used to use an image swirl to hide their identities.
I was so happy when they reversed that swirl to identify people and then found them. I really don't know how good people work with what they have to see daily to crack down on these criminals, but I'm thankful for them.
E2E is definitely double edged. I use Signal from privacy from big corps tracking my every location and hitting me and friends with targeted ads, but if you have a mobile they can still track your device by cell tower pings. You cannot get too far away from it in the modern day and age without a lot of tinfoil.