Telegram Messenger / voice app banned in Russia - fallout

[msmob]

I use Telegram - when a signal / connection is bad - it  handles calls better than Viber, Skype, WhatsApp, etc.,   Russians introduced it to me

Now it's been banned in Russia - as the media regulator wanted encryption algorithms handed over - so the  security services could monitor traffic.  However, telegram works on the principle that conversations are end to end encrypted using random pore-shared keys, so there was no way they could comply with the media regulators demands


Do terrorists use this medium because of security   / privacy it offers - undoubtedly

As I couldn't call Russia using Telegram for voice calls it was suggested we use Google Duo

I had never heard of it - but the video quality was OUTSTANDING...better than SKYPE, et al

I'm not so sure about the audio as I can hear my audio coming back from the other end on conference calls - but if Google get this right - they will replace SKYPE for me

It seems heavy on data usage when on home internet and seems to cut down the bandwidth used with one party using mobile / cellular data 

Give it a try and let me know what you think

[deccie]

Apparently they initially did an ip range block which took down access to a whole pile of Amazon services as well. I initially found out about it when access to an IRC server I use a bit didn't go through. Then I found Postal tracking was also down. But the fallout has been huge. Banks and some  other government services were impacted by the Amazon block. I use tor for any web services I need that are not allowed here (such as Linkedin) and maintain a shell account on a machine located on campus at an American University for other stuff.