All of these apps seem to hate open platforms and third party clients; Signal just as much as WhatsApp. I wouldn't even mind using WhatsApp if I could just open a browser window on any modern computer and log on like I can with Twitter. But no, I need to have a smartphone with either Android or IOS. They all want that magic unique personal identifier that is the mobile phone number to prevent you from having more than one persona, and they all want their closed apps as the sole way of using their service.

Of course, that requirement is exactly how they implement the user lock-in, so it's not going anywhere until legislation forces them to open up.

Signal is actually open source but I agree with the sentiment.

Services now just want some person info they can link to you and that actually scares me a little.

You're right about Signal having an open source client of course. It's a closed platform because of the 'no-forks-allowed' stipulations.

The main reason for not wishing that Signal is forked revolves around adding new features. It stops things being fragmented.

As both the client _and the server_ is open source though it's entirely possible to do things like Signal<->Matrix bridges.

I don't think it's the Russian government you should be concerned about when using Telegram. Sure, TG is far from a secure platform, but the Russians have spent considerable effort trying to shut it down so out of all the possibilities, I'd say TG being in Russian hands is among the smallest.

Ah. That's why Russian government was trying to block Telegram for over two years. Good to know.

They could have just been doing that to lend it legitimacy ... psyops is something they’re very big into these days

I've heard that before and the idea is reasonable but I must say if they've actually pulled of that stunt then it is amazing because I've seen nothing to suggest so despite being aware of the possibility for years.

I’d say it’s pretty much their MO these days

You mean directing people were they want by pretending they don't want you to while not taking action against those who do?

If so, do you have other notable examples or is it insider information? ;-)

I think it’s pretty well known ... have a look into this guy https://www.google.ie/amp/s/amp.theatlantic.com/amp/article/...

I know you’re not engaging in good faith but I’m adding this more for the benefit of onlookers

> I know you’re not engaging in good faith but I’m adding this more for the benefit of onlookers

That was uncalled for. Please adjust your troll-detector and I'll adjust my wittyness dispenser ;-)

I am serious even when I'm joking, but I have never heard anyone saying that in full seriousness and also it feels like we should have known something: even the Russian secret service isn't perfect, in fact they've done some really big mistakes the last few years (in addition to their deliberate "mistakes" that they seemingly do to show off.)

Yeah right Vladimir. Sure.

I actually have a really viking name for some reason and while I have tried to learn Russian my vocabulary is limited to around 20 or so :-)

>Telegram is to the russian government what whatsapp is to the US government.

Do you have a source for that. Telegram is built by the VKontakt guys who Putin famously fucked over.

And that's why we have Matrix.