Spain has banned Telegram.

They are claiming this is over copyright violations of users, that Telegram is failing to police. Now some users will be forced to consider decentralized solutions. As I have repeated many times, Session messenger empowers users to defy state level censorship, with its unique blockchain based DNS that completely separates physical locations from identity. And our team has repeatedly mentioned using Session to defy a Monero ban.

With Session, if the location of the VPS or device is discovered, the user can rotate the blockchain name to a new public key. On the other hand, SimpleX, Tor Onions, or XMPP are tied to physical devices with encryption keys in memory, and their discovery is a game-over.

However, Session receives a lot of criticism. Rather than ignore this, I tackle it head on, https://simplifiedprivacy.com/spain-has-banned-telegram-defending-session/

Tor Browser Onion: http://privacypkybrxebcjicfhgwsb3coatqechwnc5xow4udxwa6jemylmyd.onion/spain-has-banned-telegram-defending-session/

  • black0ut@pawb.social
    51·
    8 months ago

    Spain has not really banned Telegram. It has instituted a temporary restriction while the company appeals. However, this restriction isn’t really enforceable, because it must be implemented within 3 hours of the ISPs receiving the ban notice. However, ISPs can only receive these notices oficially on working days, and right now they’re celebrating easter.

    Telegram has 3 days to appeal the ban, and it probably will appeal before ISPs start blocking it. The appeal will most probably be accepted (as Telegram is an important company, and many people there use it as their only messaging app).

    Thus, the ban will probably be lifted even before ISPs start blocking Telegram, unless something goes terribly wrong.

  • azalty@jlai.luEnglish
    1·
    7 months ago

    I’m all for switching for Session, but it has some serious issues that can’t be ignore and that you didn’t talk about:

    • Messages fail to send WAY too often. On mobile it automatically retries to send the message so all good, but not on desktop / windows. Having to resend the same message 5 times for it to finally work is annoying
    • Notifications and message reception can be really delayed on mobile (android specifically), but goes faster on iOS than on desktop
    • Mobile apps have some accessibility issues like not scrolling down automatically when a new message is received while the conversation is open
    • The android app regularly crashes
    • the onion routing sometimes gets stuck on mobile. The solution is to close the app and wait for it to choose a new route
    • image quality sucks. Too much compression even with the best settings enabled

    These issues have been here for a couple of years now. That’s pretty annoying not to see any change and improvement

    • azalty@jlai.luEnglish
      1·
      7 months ago

      Also the shadiness around the OXEN foundation doesn’t make me want to support them financially. A crypto on which they get a certain % of each block mined, and also have pre-mined currency? Heh, can’t support that

  • gunnm@monero.town
    21·
    8 months ago

    I don’t think Telegram users are the kind to use decentralized solutions, they will rather use some proxy. I think it is still important for Monero community still being active on Telegram for more exposure.

  • AriaVPN@monero.town
    1·
    8 months ago

    If anyone is interested…we’re building a VPN service which collects zero data and would love to trade some free trials for your feedback :)

        • azalty@jlai.luEnglish
          2·
          7 months ago

          This. I don’t get why it’s so praised. I feel like all main clients are just spyware with how much data they retrieve

        • tusker@monero.town
          44·
          8 months ago

          Telegram does not collect metadata… 🤦

          You can run your own matrix server. Metadata is meaningless if you use a different account for each identity along with VPN’s.

            • tusker@monero.town
              12·
              8 months ago

              I said Matrix is better than both of them, hence talking about telegram…

              I have a separate account for every identity all using different IP’s, the metadata is meaningless. Matrix is the best way to chat online once you consider all pros and cons.

          • SummerBreeze@monero.townOP
            31·
            8 months ago

            The metadata of conversations is just as important as the metadata of money. The CIA director said “we kill people off metadata”

            Also this conversation was about censorship, not just pure privacy. Matrix is federated, just like SimpleX. Meaning it uses government domains. So one could not trade Monero on either of these platforms against the will of sanctions with any meaningful size.

            Can you do a small amount and different burners? Sure. But then how’s the customer gonna verify its you and find you? PGP signatures over Matrix DMS? c’mon man, we’re talking about freedom here.

            • tusker@monero.town
              11·
              8 months ago

              Yes, if you are using the same account to talk to your grandma as to buy and sell 10K XMR then you may have a problem, but you would most likely be OK anyway.

              I would like to see Matrix over Tor or I2P this would solve any DMS issues.

              • SummerBreeze@monero.townOP
                2·
                8 months ago

                I’m asking you to consider this technology beyond just evasion. It’s a distribution system for content.

                Matrix is tied to one server. Federation is physical locations. Yeah you can hide those locations with Tor or I2P, but ultimately if that location is found its game over. With a blockchain based and node based system, its full blown crypto anarchy. You can establish a reputation that can’t be taken away.

                The same way we value XMR for it’s self-custody of money, as opposed to btc lightning that ties it to a liquidity server. That same logic, is now why self-custody of communication is greater than “federated liquidity hiding”

                • tusker@monero.town
                  2·
                  8 months ago

                  I see what you are saying. Once we have the usability and feature set of matrix with a blockchain based decentralized solution I am 100% in. 👍

          • matcha_addict
            1·
            8 months ago

            You can run your own matrix server

            If you communicate with someone on another server, wouldn’t your data and metadata be exposed to that server too?

            • tusker@monero.town
              1·
              8 months ago

              Yes, the other server can see who you are talking to, but you can encrypt the conversation so they cannot see the content.

              • matcha_addict
                1·
                8 months ago

                Not that telegram or others are any better (except maybe SimpleX), but imo this is a significant privacy weak point. But I understand it is pretty difficult to get away from this.

                I disagree that metadata is meaningless even if you use multiple identities with VPN. But I agree this greatly enhances your security. A state actor could potentially still find you out though, with enough effort.