SINGAPORE – Messaging app Telegram has been within the information lately for all of the unsuitable causes – equivalent to for being linked to crime, misinformation and abuse.
The app has additionally made waves abroad, with Germany contemplating a ban on it as a consequence of an inflow of extremist content material, together with anti-vaccine conspiracy theories which have led to threats of violence.
However what’s it that has made the app so widespread – it now has greater than 500 million customers – and a hotbed for scams? What could be performed about its issues? The Straits Instances explains.
1. Mega chat group dimension a draw
Mr Bryan Tan, a lawyer from Pinsent Masons MPillay who specialises in know-how legislation, attributes Telegram’s reputation to its massive chat dimension that may go as much as 200,000 customers – in contrast with WhatsApp’s 256-user restrict.
“This enables Telegram for use for mega-sized teams, nearly like a information web site, with out having to run costly content material servers,” he stated, including that the app additionally permits customers to ship massive information.
2. Telephone quantity not wanted for account registration
It’s optionally available to offer a telephone quantity when registering a Telegram account.
“Anonymity performs a big position within the unfold of misinformation, as a result of there is no such thing as a mechanism of accountability,” stated Affiliate Professor Edson C. Tandoc Jr from Nanyang Technological College (NTU).
Prof Tandoc, who’s from NTU’s Centre for Data Integrity and the Web, added: “Take, for instance, anti-vaccination teams, the place individuals share data that might not be backed by proof. Simply the quantity of messages that are available in each day could make it convincing for some individuals.”
However a bigger situation arising from the rising use of Telegram and the anonymity it affords is the formation of extremist teams, stated consultants.
Ms Tania Chin, a accomplice within the prison litigation workforce at legislation agency Withers KhattarWong, stated: “Coordination of terror assaults, espousing terrorist beliefs and the unfold of disinformation are nonetheless the best threats.”
3. Lack of default end-to-end encryption
Dr Natalie Pang, senior lecturer and deputy head of the Communications and New Media Division on the Nationwide College of Singapore, stated end-to-end encryption just isn’t supplied by default on Telegram as it’s with different apps equivalent to WhatsApp.
The encryption ensures that solely the 2 customers speaking can entry the data shared on the chat.
“In different phrases, chats in Telegram can nonetheless run the danger of being leaked and accessed by third events,” Dr Pang stated.
This implies hackers can use Telegram to unfold malware or ransomware to steal or lock up customers’ information.
