Encrypted Chat Toy Maker Caves 4 $s

Razer g2s at riseup.net
Sun Jul 16 08:03:12 PDT 2017


Indonesia and that region of the world  is a YUGE messenger 'market'.

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/national-politics/article161639003.html

Rr

> JAKARTA, Indonesia
>
> The encrypted messaging app Telegram is forming a team of moderators
> who are familiar with Indonesian culture and language so it can remove
> "terrorist-related content" faster, its co-founder said Sunday, after
> Indonesia limited access to the app and threatened a total ban.
>
> Pavel Durov, who with his brother Nikolai founded the app in 2013,
> said in a message to his 40,000 followers on Telegram that he'd been
> unaware of a failure to quickly respond to an Indonesian government
> request to block a number of offending channels — chat groups on the
> app — but was now rectifying the situation.
>
> The Ministry of Communications and Information Technology said Friday
> that it was preparing for the total closure of Telegram in Indonesia,
> where it has several million users, if it didn't develop procedures to
> block unlawful content. As a partial measure, it asked internet
> companies in the world's most populous Muslim nation to block access
> to 11 addresses offering the web version of Telegram.
>
> Samuel Pangerapan, the director general of informatics applications at
> the ministry, said the app is used to recruit Indonesians into
> militant groups and to spread hate and methods for carrying out
> attacks including bomb making.
>
> Suspected militants arrested by Indonesian police recently have told
> authorities that they communicated with each other via Telegram and
> received orders and directions to carry out attacks through the app,
> including from Bahrun Naim, an Indonesian with the Islamic State group
> in Syria accused of orchestrating several attacks in the past 18 months.
>
> Durov said Telegram has now blocked the channels that were reported to
> it by the Indonesian government.
>
> "We are forming a dedicated team of moderators with knowledge of
> Indonesian culture and language to be able to process reports of
> terrorist-related content more quickly and accurately," he said.
>
> Communications and Information Technology Minister Rudiantara, who
> goes by one name, said he had received an apology from Durov, who was
> apparently not aware of several requests from the ministry since 2016.
>
> "I appreciate the response from Pavel Durov and the ministry will
> follow it up as soon as possible in terms of technical details so that
> standard operating procedures can be implemented immediately,"
> Rudiantara said.
>
> Indonesia's measures against Telegram come as Southeast Asian nations
> step up efforts to combat Islamic radicalism following the capture of
> the southern Philippine city of Marawi by Islamic State group-linked
> militants.
>
> Nearly two months after the initial assault, Philippine forces are
> still battling to regain complete control of the city. Experts fear
> the southern Philippines could become a new base for the IS, including
> Indonesian and Malaysian militants returning from the Middle East, as
> an international coalition retakes territory held by the IS in Syria
> and Iraq.
>
> But the government move sparked a public outcry in Indonesia, with
> Twitter and Facebook exploding with negative comments and some people
> reporting they were unable to access the web.telegram.org domain.
> Indonesians are among the world's biggest users of social media.
>
> The free messaging service can be used as a smartphone app and on
> computers through a web interface or desktop messenger. Its strong
> encryption has contributed to its popularity with those concerned
> about privacy and secure communications in the digital era but also
> attracted militant groups and other criminal elements.
>
> Durov said Telegram blocks thousands of IS-related channels a month
> and is "always open to ideas on how to get better at this."
>
> --30--




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