When you see your neighbor’s beard being cut, soak yours. When you see the CEO of your messaging app arrested, prepare the evacuation capsule, just in case. Pavel Durov, CEO and founder of Telegram, was arrested in France in connection with the Moderating illegal content on Telegramwhich could endanger the continuity of the application in the long run. The good news is that there are many alternatives.
Pavel Durov has been detained as part of the preliminary investigation for allegedly enabling a series of crimes on Telegram by not cooperating with the police and not having enough moderatorsaccording to French police sources consulted by Reuters. If this news has put you off continuing to use Telegram, you can always opt for one of the great alternatives that exist today.
On WhatsApp you can report specific users and messages
Telegram’s natural enemy is WhatsApp and it is also its main alternative. While both applications are different in their approach (Telegram is cloud-based and WhatsApp is not), WhatsApp’s latest changes, including the new multi-device mode, make it a great alternative for WhatsApp. The two applications are more similar than ever: Telegram copies WhatsApp and WhatsApp copies Telegram, so it won’t take you long to get the hang of it.
WhatsApp messages are end-to-end encrypted, but when you report an account the last five messages are sent to WhatsApp so that they can read them and take measures such as suspending the account if it violates the conditions of use. WhatsApp complies with the legal processes of each country in which it operates, thus providing its users’ information (such as IP address, last connection or email) to law enforcement agencies, subject to a court order.
Messenger
In Messenger you can indicate exactly what problem each message has
Another alternative to Meta’s Telegram is Messenger, traditionally cloud-based (like Telegram)although it has recently shifted to end-to-end encrypted chats, like WhatsApp. Its full name is Facebook Messenger, and it inherits from “Facebook” complete moderation and reporting options.
Facebook’s moderation team is one of the best known of the apps of this style. It is estimated that Facebook has about 15,000 moderators and it’s clear that they are very active, for better or worse. When you report a message you can indicate exactly what the problem is, compared to other applications where you just report it without further ado.
Instagram reports are like those on Messenger (or Facebook)
Pretty much everything we mentioned above about Messenger applies to Instagram as well. After all, Meta has been unifying the Messenger and Instagram messaging experience for some time now, so They are very similar.
With the arrival of channels on Instagram, the app is closer than ever to Telegram as an option to chat with your friends and stay up to date with updates from the pages you follow. Facebook’s moderation muscle is still there and also all the options when it comes to reporting.
Signal
Signal only lets us report spam
An option outside of Meta is Signal, one of the most private messaging apps. Messages are end-to-end encryptionlike WhatsApp, but Signal stores even less metadata about its users.
Signal only allows us to report spamso any other illegal content you find in their messages. These reports are different from WhatsApp’s because they don’t initially include the content of the messages. When an account receives multiple reports, it must complete a CAPTCHA to continue using Signal.
Google Messages
Google Messages only lets us report spam and shares messages with Google
A somewhat niche option is to use Google Messages RCS messaging with your friends who also have RCS enabled. As an alternative to Telegram it falls a bit short, but it will work if you want to chat with your friends and not much else. It also has the advantage that You probably already have the app installed on your mobile.
Google Messages only lets us report messages as spam and not for any other reason. However, when reporting a message, it is “possible” that recent messages are shared with both Google and mobile operators.