I saw a message today stating the “Google Play Store is now censoring certain pages on Telegram if you downloaded the app through them.” The message suggested a simple workaround to download the app directly from telegram.org/android. Here’s the message in its entirety: Google Play Store is now censoring certain pages on Telegram if you downloaded the app through them. To get around this simply download the Android app directly from Telegram themselves.

When I left Facebook in 2012-2013 I did so knowing I was no longer in full control of how I received information from my friends and acquaintances. Fast-forward to the year 2021 and I’ve now been on Telegram for over 4 years. With Telegram there are no information gatekeepers algorithmically deciding what I can and cannot see, or what may or may not be considered factually correct. As an individual who spent their entire youth choosing for themselves what to believe I wasn’t about to give that up because of some college drop-out who attained “network effect”.

After making some tweaks to improve my online privacy I’ve been waffling over whether or not to use Telegram. I’ve never been too keen on software which collects metadata, or, as Edward Snowden calls them, “activity records”, about their users. My hang-up was the controversy and theoretical weakness in MTProto, Telegram’s encryption protocol. But that all changed the moment Russia banned Telegram, reportedly disrupting their national banking system in the process.

Privacy is not for sale, and human rights should not be compromised out of fear or greed.

Pavel Durov

Now that’s what I call integrity.