Telegram is a cross-platform messenger that allows you to exchange messages and media files in many formats. It uses a proprietary server part with closed source code, running on the capacities of several companies in the USA and Germany, financed by Pavel Durov in the amount of about 13 million US dollars annually, and several open source clients, including those licensed under the GNU GPL.
The number of monthly active users of the service as of the end of March 2018 is more than 200 million people. In August 2017, in his Telegram channel, Pavel Durov announced that the number of users is increasing by more than 600 thousand daily.
According to the research of Romir research holding in February 2018, on average, Telegram users in Russia spend 10-11 minutes a day on it. The largest share of users is among Russians aged 18-24. Telegram is twice as popular in Moscow than in Russia as a whole, especially among an audience of 35 to 44 years old.
In addition to the standard messaging in dialogs and groups, in the messenger you can store an unlimited number of files (→), maintain channels (microblogs) (→), create and use bots (→).
From April 16, 2018, restrictions on the use of the messenger in Russia have been imposed
History
The project was created by Pavel Durov, the founder of the VKontakte social network. In an interview with The New York Times, Pavel said that the initial idea of the application came to him back in 2011, when special forces came to his door. When the latter nevertheless left, Durov immediately wrote to his brother Nikolai. Then he realized that he did not have a safe way to communicate with his brother. The service is based on the MTProto correspondence encryption technology developed by Pavel’s brother, Nikolai. Telegram itself was originally an experiment owned by Pavel Digital Fortress in order to test MTProto under heavy loads.
On August 14, 2013, the first Telegram client for iOS devices was introduced.
On August 22, 2013, one of the participants in the Durov's Android Challenge competition wrote and made publicly available the first application for the Android operating system compatible with Telegram (uses the same MTProto protocol).
In October, the project opened a website and presented the official version of Telegram for Android with open source code (GPL2). A previous version of the program is available under the name "Unofficial Telegram S".
On November 7, 2013, third-party service clients for Windows and macOS with limited functionality appeared. The concept of a web version of the client was also developed.
In November, the program had, according to "TJournal", about 1 million installations.
In January 2014, an unofficial web version of Webogram was released from former VK developer Igor Zhukov.
On July 21, 2014, the Telegram HD app for iPhone and iPad appeared on the App Store and was downloaded by Telegram Messenger LLP.
The new application received a special version for the Apple iPad, improved support for video and high-resolution photos, added the ability to send animated images in.gif" />
On October 15, 2014, Telegram added support for aliases by which it is possible to communicate with users without even knowing their phone number, and a web client has also been launched.
On January 2, 2015, support for stickers was added to Telegram. Initially, the application has 14 stickers, but any user can modify them or add their own. Unlike many applications, Telegram stickers are completely free.
In February 2016, one of the creators of Telegram Pavel Durov said that more than 100 million people are using the messenger, while the service delivers about 15 billion messages daily. Back in September 2015, Telegram transmitted 12 billion messages per day.
In April 2016, it became known that in May 2015, Google was considering buying a messenger for more than $ 1 billion.
In May 2016, it became possible to edit sent messages. It is possible to make changes within two days from the date of shipment. In this case, a special label will appear in the message.
On November 22, 2016, the developers launched the Telegraph project - a blog platform, a free publishing tool that allows you to create publications, reviews, embed photos and all kinds of embedded code. Telegraph is a hybrid of a blogging platform, messenger and platisher (similar to Medium), with the concept of anonymous imageboards.
On January 3, 2017, one of the developers added the ability to delete his sent messages. After the sender has deleted the message, the interlocutor will not be able to see the deleted message.
In March 2017, V. D. Solovey, citing an anonymous source, reported that Russian intelligence agencies had access to user messages and their archive for three years. Pavel Durov called this statement a duck.
On May 15, 2017, it became known that the desktop version of Telegram was able to make calls.
On May 16, 2017, the Telegram administration announced that it would not provide information to Russian government agencies.
On May 19, 2017, along with the new Telegram update for iOS, HTML5 embedded games were removed. According to the founder of the messenger Pavel Durov, representatives of the App Store did not approve of the publication of a new version of the messenger with built-in games, threatening the Telegram team with removing the application from the store.
On June 28, 2017, Roskomnadzor entered the program in the “Register of Information Distributors”.
On September 27, 2017, Durov announced the FSB's request on July 14 to provide “information necessary for decoding received, transmitted, delivered and (or) processed electronic messages”, as well as the subsequent drafting of an administrative protocol for failure to comply with this requirement.
On October 11, 2017, an updated version of the Telegram messenger for iOS and Android in Russian appeared, prepared using the new translations. telegram.org platform, with which the messenger interface was translated into Ukrainian, French, Malay and other languages. The appearance of the media player has also changed, and it has become possible to share your geo-location.
An example of the attitude of the Russian security agencies towards the messenger is the following fact: on October 16, 2017, the Meshchansky District Court of Moscow fined Telegram 800 thousand rubles for refusing to provide the FSB with information for decoding messages regarding 6 numbers that use this messenger. Commenting on the situation, Pavel Durov stated that he considers the FSB requirements on Telegram to be contrary to the Constitution of the Russian Federation, and asked lawyers who want to tackle the issue to contact him.
In November 2017, the Telegram channel was first blocked due to audio piracy.
On March 20, 2018, the Supreme Court of Russia upheld the FSB's requirement to provide keys for decrypting Telegram correspondence. On the same day, Roskomnadzor notified Telegram of the need to comply with the requirements of the law on the provision of information to the FSB of Russia. If Telegram does not provide the FSB encryption keys within 15 days, it may be blocked in Russia. The creator of the messenger announced his refusal to give the FSB encryption keys for correspondence in Telegram.
"Threats to block Telegram, if we do not give out the private data of users, will lead to nothing. Telegram protects freedom and confidentiality." - Pavel Durov
March 29, 2018 there was a failure in the messenger. The problem affected both the application and the web client. According to company representatives, the problem affected residents of Europe, the Middle East and the CIS. Users have lost the ability to exchange messages, make notes in group chats and channels, and also make calls. According to Pavel Durov, the reason is a power outage in one of the data centers. According to Kommersant, the backup channels probably did not work due to errors in the system configuration.
Number of users
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Technology
For the messenger, the MTProto protocol was created, which involves the use of several encryption protocols. For authorization and authentication, RSA-2048 and DH-2048 algorithms are used for encryption; when transmitting protocol messages to the network, they are encrypted by AES with a key known to the client and server. Cryptographic hash algorithms SHA-1 and MD5 are also used.
On October 8, 2013, the mode of "secret" chats (Secret Chats) appeared in the messenger. This mode implements encryption, in which only the sender and receiver have a common key (end-to-end encryption), using the AES-256 algorithm in IGE mode (English Infinite Garble Extension) for forwarded messages. Unlike normal mode, messages in secret chats are not decrypted by the server, the correspondence history is saved only on those two devices on which the chat was created.
When exchanging files, you can either send files from the device or search for media content on the Internet, if you are using a mobile version for iOS or Android. The size of the transferred files is limited to 1.5 GB. The program uses a system to resume files after disconnection.
It is possible to change the formatting of the text, making it: bold, italics and monospaced. In addition, using a special bot, you can check spelling.
In 2018, version 4.8 for Android introduced innovations: watching videos in parallel with downloading files and an automatic night theme that turns on at a later time of the day, in low light, or when the battery charge is less than 25%.
Features
All functionality in Telegram is divided into tabs. Each tab is designed as a chat. There are 5 types of chats in Telegram:
· Dialogs (→);
· Groups (→);
· Saved messages (→);
· Channels (→);
· Chats with bots (→).
Dialogues
The design and functionality of the dialogs is not very different from other messengers. There are standard features: voice messages, file attachment, stickers and emojis, the ability to see that the interlocutor has read the message, preview links, etc.
Making dialogue in Telegram
Groups
It is possible to organize groups of up to 200 participants, starting from November 2015, supergroups up to 1000 participants, from March 14, 2016 - supergroups up to 5000 participants. From June 30, 2017, the size of supergroups increased to 10, 000 participants, from January 30, 2018 - supergroups to 100, 000 participants.
Saved Messages (Favorites)
All necessary messages can be saved in a separate tab. You can also upload an unlimited number of files there, that is, the messenger provides an endless cloud.
Channels
The most important feature that distinguishes Telegram from its competitors is the communication tool in the format of public channels. This method allows the author or group of authors to share information with an unlimited circle of people with a minimum distance between the reader and the content, but also maintain anonymity.
Telegram channels have three key differences from standard microblogging (such as Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr …):
· Lack of algorithmic news feed.
· Lack of feedback.
· Anonymity.
Lack of algorithmic news feed
In most popular social networks, all publications that are shown to the user are displayed in the form of a news feed that automatically adjusts to the interests of the user, that is, shows those publications that, according to the algorithms, are of most interest to him (the user). It can be flipped endlessly.
Telegram channel is made out in the form of a chat; if a publication appears in it, a notification is sent to the subscriber. Except in two cases:
1. The user has disabled notifications from this channel or disabled notifications in principle.
2. The author of the publication used "silent mode".
This feature has several advantages and disadvantages. For example, in such a system, the value of information increases, since users are less likely to subscribe to a channel with low-quality content.
Lack of feedback
Telegram channels do not have the ability to like and write comments. The only way to contact the author is through a personal message if he gave a link to his profile in the channel description. At the same time, the author of the channel can use the bots @like, @vote and @CommentsBot to add voting, polling or the ability to comment on a specific entry in the channel.
Anonymity
Telegram does not provide anyone, except the channel administrators themselves, with information about who leads the channel and who subscribes to it.
From a conceptual point of view, channels give readers, on the one hand, the opportunity to feel at the same level as the author (channel publications look the same as exchanging personal messages, only without the possibility of publishing answers by readers), and on the other hand, allow users to consume content in convenient coordinate system in the format of a separate dialogue (starting from the chronology of publication of materials).
Bots
Using a special API, third-party developers can create "bots", special accounts managed by programs. Typical bots respond to special teams in personal and group chats, they can also search the Internet or perform other tasks, they are used for entertainment purposes or in business.
In September 2015, Pavel Durov announced the imminent emergence of opportunities for monetization and advertising in bots.
On May 18, 2017, a payment API was introduced for bots. So that users can test this feature, the Telegram team created a test bot that offers to buy a "Time Machine" (no money was charged from users).
Multilingualism
Telegram has been translated and continues to be translated into the following languages:
· Windows version: Belarusian, Czech, French, Polish, Ukrainian, Turkish and Russian;
· For Android: Azerbaijani, Belarusian, Czech, French, Polish, Ukrainian, Turkish, Tatar, Uzbek and Russian;
· For iOS (iPhone and iPad): Belarusian, Czech, Polish, Ukrainian, Turkish and Russian;
· For OS X: Belarusian, Polish and Russian.
At the moment, there is a joint translation into English, Arabic, Dutch, French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Korean, Malaysian, Persian, Portuguese (Brazilian), Russian, Spanish, Ukrainian.
Telegram Open Network Platform and Gram Cryptocurrency
Main article: Telegram Open Network
Telegram for a long time existed as a project only at the expense of Pavel Durov and its monetization scheme was not clear. In 2017, Pavel Durov discloses his plans and attracts $ 850 million of investments for his business plan, which is officially registered by the US Securities Commission. In the second round of attracting investors, another 1.7 billion dollars were raised. At the same time, before the third round of placement, Durov rejected about half of the investment requests, investors wanted to invest $ 3.7 billion in the project right away. The refusal of Pavel Durov to receive new investments is due to the fact that his plan to attract them has been repeatedly exceeded. The cost of creating a Telegram Open Network is estimated at $ 400 million.
Pavel Durov does not hide that his idea to build a darknet is not original and is based on many I2P concepts. In the figure, the bot application from the "shadow Internet" is invisible in the normal Internet. I2P is an overlay distributed system that uses existing Internet channels only as a transport and does not use its IP addresses inside itself as a means of communication between nodes. Government regulators cannot set rules or filter content within darknets.
It follows from the business plan of Pavel Durov that Telegram as a messenger was in fact only the first phase of a larger project and was created mainly to form a huge customer base. The real goal of the project is precisely the Telegram Open Network platform, which offers currency with fast processing, as well as various paid services from Proxy to bypass locks to bots and file storage that can be paid for with this Gram cryptocurrency.
Darknet Telegram Open Network
TON is a darknet with full-fledged services from payments to file storage and applications, which is based on the paradigm of a distributed system, regardless of the constant connection to the management servers. Durov in the business plan calls the closest analogue how to darken the I2P system.
The architecture of the TON platform, like other darknetes, contains several levels of protection against attempts to establish any kind of state regulation above it (protection from censorship according to the text of the business plan of Pavel Durov). According to media reports, the real reason for blocking Telegram in Russia is precisely the plan for creating the Telegram Open Network, where the state completely loses control over payment transactions and data, therefore it will not be able to collect taxes from operations, protect the interests of copyright holders, etc. traditional regulation.
TON component
Appointment
Analogue
Ton storage
Distributed torrent-like storage for files and services
Torrents, eMule
TON Proxy
Proxies and anonymizers architecturally similar to I2P and Tor
Tor, I2P
Ton services
Platform for creating distributed applications for TON
I2P
TON Payments
Payment system, including for micropayments with deferred display in TON Blockchain
VISA, Mastercard
Gram cryptocurrency for quick calculations
Main article: Gram
Gram is a cryptocurrency based on the Telegram open network or TON blockchain platform developed by Telegram. A feature of the Gram blockchain platform is its fast transaction speed. Cryptocurrencies implemented on the blockchain platforms of the initial generations, due to the low speed of transactions, are more suitable for investing than for use as a payment tool. For example, Bitcoin can provide only 7 transactions per second, Ethereum - 15. The speed of the Gram blockchain platform is estimated to be millions of transactions per second. According to the developers, Gram should become a cryptanalogue of Visa and Mastercard.
Vulnerability Search Contests
In December 2013, Pavel Durov announced a competition until March 1, 2014 to “hack” Telegram protection with a prize pool of $ 200 thousand. The terms of the contest were to decrypt Pavel’s personal correspondence with his brother Nikolai through “secret chats”, using encrypted data exchanged between applications and the server. Their daily emails contained a secret email address, the decryption of which would give a prize.
The attack model required for such a hack, an attack based on ciphertext, is the weakest and, at the same time, the most complex and inconvenient for a cryptanalyst. There are extremely weak algorithms that may be robust in this model, but vulnerable to other methods. Typically, when analyzing new cryptographic algorithms, stronger attack models are used, in which the attacker may know the text before encryption, given the ability to send any texts for encryption or the ability to change data sent over the network. Thus, in the event that no one wins the competition, this will not prove the cryptographic security of the protocol.
On December 23, 2013, just a few days after the start of the competition, the Habrahabra user, who is not an expert in cryptography, discovered a vulnerability in that the client received parameters for generating DH keys (constants for determining the residue field) from the server without checking due to which the proprietary MTProto server could transmit incorrect parameters that do not provide cryptographic strength, and secretly conduct a MITM attack on secret chats. Since he was unable to read the correspondence, the size of the gain was only 100 thousand dollars. После этого клиент был обновлён, в нём была добавлена проверка параметров, получаемых от сервера, с целью значительно уменьшить вероятность подобной атаки.
В ноябре 2014 года был организован новый трёхмесячный конкурс, в котором модель атаки была расширена, у атакующего появилась возможность выступать в качестве сервера MTProto, изменяя пересылаемые данные. По условиям конкурса требуется взломать "секретный чат", при этом участники чата проводят сверку ключей, согласованных при открытии чата, по независимым каналам связи.
По оценкам исследователя Moxie Marlinspike и других, подобные конкурсы не могут доказать безопасности шифрования и лишь вводят в заблуждение. Отсутствие выигравших не означает безопасности продукта, многие такие конкурсы в целом нечестны, анализ не контролируется и проводится случайными людьми, а вознаграждения зачастую слишком малы, чтобы оправдать многолетнюю работу нескольких компетентных криптоаналитиков.
Критика и конфликты с властями
Учётные записи пользователей привязываются к телефонным номерам, что является одним из самых существенных аргументов критиков Telegram, поскольку это не обеспечивает полной анонимности при общении. При регистрации в сервисе и последующих авторизациях новых устройств производится проверка телефонного номера через отправку SMS-сообщения с кодом (на некоторых ОС — перехватывается приложением) или телефонный вызов.
Основатель WhatsApp Ян Кум указал в комментарии для Cossa.ru, что идеи, реализованные в его приложении, используются в Telegram.
Серверы Telegram не сохраняют сообщения из секретных чатов, но сохраняют историю обычных чатов и содержимое адресной книги пользователей на срок использования сервиса и на срок неактивности, указанный в настройках аккаунта (от одного месяца до года). Используемое в мессенджере шифрование не обеспечивает PFS во всех случаях.
Официальные клиенты Telegram по умолчанию активно рассылают всем контактам метаинформацию об открытии и закрытии приложения, при этом подписаться на эту метаинформацию может любой пользователь. Для отключения подобной рассылки требуется изменить настройки аккаунта.
Также неоднократно высказывались сомнения в безопасности протокола MTProto.
Имеются сообщения, что мессенджером могут пользоваться различные террористические группы как для общения, так и для пропаганды. В частности, террористическая группировка ИГ (ИГИЛ) использовала Телеграм для распространения своих заявлений более чем 14 тысячам подписчиков в более чем 30 каналах на различных языках. Однако команда Telegram активно занимается поиском и дальнейшей блокировкой подобных каналов.
Цензура
Telegram выборочно применял цензуру. В частности, некоторое время мессенджер использовался в Иране для распространения порнографии и сатирических комментариев о правительстве. Руководство Telegram ограничило деятельность некоторых ботов и запретило определённые наборы изображений-"стикеров" по запросу правительства Ирана. В то же время чаты Телеграма не подвергались цензуре. В октябре 2015 года Дуров заявил, что компания Telegram Messenger LLP отказалась помогать Ирану в слежке за гражданами и в цензуре, из-за чего работа приложения некоторое время блокировалась. 30 апреля 2018 года власти Ирана полностью запретили пользоваться мессенджером Telegram, по решению суда в связи с "жалобами граждан" и "требованиями обеспечения безопасности". На тот момент Telegram был одним из наиболее популярных приложений, им пользовалось примерно половина населения страны. После запрета мессенджер был доступен без использования средств обхода блокировки.
Мессенджер блокировался властями в некоторых регионах Китая, где он мог использоваться для координации антиправительственных выступлений.
4 ноября 2017 года Telegram был временно заблокирован на территории Афганистана.
Конфликт с Роскомнадзором
16 мая 2017 года российские СМИ впервые написали о том, что Роскомнадзор угрожает закрыть Telegram. 23 июня 2017 года глава Роскомнадзора Александр Жаров публично направил обращение Павлу Дурову с требованием предоставить информацию о компании для последующего внесения мессенджера Telegram в Реестр организаторов распространения информации в сети. От Дурова требовались следующие данные: полное и сокращенное наименование, страна регистрации, налоговый идентификатор и/или идентификатор в торговом реестре страны регистрации, адрес местонахождения, почтовый адрес, электронный адрес, доменное имя, электронный адрес администратора ресурса, провайдера хостинга и описание сервиса, предоставляемой услуги. Дуров отказался выполнять требования Роскомнадзора, в ответ на что получил предупреждение о блокировке мессенджера на территории России. Как утверждает сам создатель Telegram, действия Роскомнадзора явились очередным саботажем государственных интересов. На своей странице в социальной сети "ВКонтакте" Дуров указал на политическую нейтральность своего мессенджера, в отличие от подконтрольных властям США WhatsApp и Facebook Messenger. Тем не менее, в ведомстве намекнули на нейтральное отношение Дурова к террористам, которые, по официальному заявлению ФСБ России, использовали Telegram при подготовке теракта в метро Санкт-Петербурга. В связи с этим Роскомнадзор потребовал от Павла Дурова выдать ключи для дешифрации переписок с целью выявления потенциальных террористов.
On June 26, 2017, Pavel Durov said that Telegram was not the only possible means for preparing terrorist attacks, and for this purpose it could be limited to disposable phones. The creator of the messenger also stressed that the decryption required by the agency is contrary to the Constitution of the Russian Federation and does not protect the world from terrorists, since it will endanger millions of Telegram users. Later, the chairman of the board of the Internet Development Institute German Klimenko called the position of Pavel Durov "mockery." The Kremlin also reported the use of other messengers in the event of a Telegram blocking in Russia, refusing to comment on the very conflict situation between Durov and Roskomnadzor. So, for example, Dmitry Peskov said that Kremlin employees are actively using the messenger.
A warning about the possible closure of the messenger was sent personally to the administrators of Telegram, and they, in turn, disseminated information among the administrators of the most popular Telegram channels. Immediately after the first messages about the possible closure of the messenger, active users created a petition for change.org, which was signed by eight thousand people. Users of the messenger believe: "it’s useless to make requests to government departments: they follow orders and comply with laws, whatever these laws may be, " "make requests to those who give orders even more uselessly - in Russia laws too often do not take into account the interests of that the part of society that feels the need for a protected and free territory for the exchange of information."
According to the amendments to the law "On Information, Information Technologies and the Protection of Information", from January 1, 2018, the organizers of the dissemination of information on the Internet are required to store information on the facts of the reception, transmission, delivery and / or processing of voice information, written text, images on the territory of Russia, sounds, videos or other electronic messages of users and information about these users during the year, and the content itself - up to six months. Services are required to provide this content at the request of federal executive authorities and provide them with the ability to decode information.
Independent expert of leading aggregators Pavel Khramtsov, interview to the newspaper Moskovsky Komsomolets:
Durov explains that the codes for decrypting messages are located directly in each user device and are re-formed each time. These "decryption keys" cannot be transferred to regulatory authorities in advance, since they are one-time. To decrypt them, you need to have full access to the "closed cache", that is, provide law enforcement with an entrance to the encryption system itself. And this is contrary to the legislation of the Russian Federation, firstly. And secondly, who has access to this "admin panel" - that owns the messenger. That is, this means giving the entire Telegram to special services and Roskomnadzor. Durov and his employees then simply will not be needed.
On June 27, 2017, Alexander Zharov explained that the department’s priority requirements for Durov in no way imply access to users’personal correspondence. Soon, Roskomnadzor recorded cases of inaccurate information with Telegram data from random Internet users. On June 28, Pavel Durov agreed to provide the agency with true data, saying that all the necessary information is in the public domain. However, the creator of Telegram said that he would not accept any additional obligations from the Russian special services. On the same day, the messenger was entered in the Register of Information Distributors under the number 90-PP.
Telegram blocking in Russia
Main article: Telegram blocking in Russia
On March 20, 2018, the Telegram lawsuit against the FSB of Russia was rejected. The messenger was requested to provide within 15 days the technology of decryption of personal messages of users. Roskomnadzor promised to immediately block Telegram in case of non-compliance. In response, Pavel Durov said on Twitter that threats to block Telegram will not bring results.
On April 13, 2018, the Tagansky court of Moscow ruled in favor of Roskomnadzor, thereby allowing it to begin blocking the messenger in Russia.
On April 16, 2018, Roskomnadzor began the Telegram blocking procedure. In response, Durov announced the creation of Digital Resistance and the beginning of the payment of bitcoin grants to administrators of Proxy and VPN services.
After the blocking began, Telegram recorded an increase in its use in Russia.
On April 30, 2018, an action in support of the Telegram blocked in Russia took place in the center of Moscow, gathering (when counting those who passed through the established framework) more than 12 thousand people.
On May 28, 2018, Roskomnadzor demanded that Apple stop distributing the Telegram application to the App Store in Russia and send out push notifications, and also threatened to “disrupt” the App Store application store.
