Moxie Marlinspike, the creator of Signal, took aim at his competitor’s architecture in a new podcast. According to him, calling Telegram a private messenger is a mistake.
“It is a standard cloud application where chat history is stored on company servers in plain text, and the encryption keys are held by the administration, not the user,” he is confident.
The developer suggested a simple test: drown your phone, buy a new one, and log in. All your chats will restore instantly. This proves that data resides not locally on the device, as end-to-end encryption standards require, but in the cloud, accessible to third parties. (Editor's note: this does not apply to secret chats).
Ties to the Kremlin
Marlinspike questioned the platform’s independence.
“Pavel Durov is a Russian oligarch who copied WhatsApp, removed encryption, and convinced the world of the product's security,” he stated.
He believes that if Telegram were truly not cooperating with Russian authorities, the conversation with the team would have been short and harsh. In the speaker’s view, Durov’s arrest in France also has nothing to do with the fight for free speech, but rather a refusal to respond to legal requests that Telegram technically can fulfill.
Durov’s Reaction
The founder of Telegram responded on X but ignored the accusations regarding the flawed architecture. He stated that people calling him an oligarch do not understand the meaning of the word.
“If I collaborated with governments rather than fighting them for freedom, my success would have been tenfold. All of Telegram’s achievements are the result of working despite state pressure,” the entrepreneur emphasized.
The question of why correspondence is stored in plain text remained unanswered.
This post is for informational purposes only and does not constitute advertising or investment advice. Please do your own research before making any decisions.