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[email protected] It gets a bit worse, Telegram has a long-standing relationship with a Saudi organization that's essentially a govt arm in Riyadh, working in direct partnership to analyze and monitor an obscene amount of user data: https://www.saudigazette.com.sa/article/641746/SAUDI-ARABIA/Etidal-Telegram-remove-over-16-million-extremist-contents-in-early-2024
They claim this only targets terrorist groups. I can verify that it absolutely impacts groups run by queer communities in the Gulf, because I was in one such group that was monitored and shut down by Etidal.
Telegram can fuck off into the sunset.
Same with groups related to the Gaza genocide.
Ror this one I think they advertised somewhere that the groups would still be available if you download the apk from their website, I did this and I can still see the hamas group
Hama’s has a public telegram channel? That seems like a legal liability
iirc they need to comply with google store policies, but when downloading the apk directly that is not relevant.