The international communities have witnessed, recently, the collective banning of the notorious messaging app, Telegram, by several countries including Russia and Iran. However, as the time passes, the former users of Telegram are still somehow suffering from the messaging app ban decision made by their governments.
Telegram Ban
And despite that the reasons behind the prohibition of Telegram still are secluded to the end-to-end encryption provided by the app that seems to be a source of several problems since many terrorists can benefit from such a service and cannot eventually be discovered or brought to justice, the ordinary people who used to depend on Telegram as a way of communicating, sharing photos and other personal stuff, and carrying out business deals, are still suffering and experiencing the aftermath of the Telegram banning in their countries.
Security
Undoubtedly, the Telegram messaging service have attracted many millions of users over the years; and the fully secured app that seems to be appealing to many users for the fact that it can maintain their privacy intact, is not as preferable to the authorities as the end-to-end encryption feature is a big source of problems for many security departments all over the world. It’s quite obvious that if any government can’t fully monitor the content of the conversations carried out via any chatting app, such as Telegram, and especially the apps that support a completely unobtrusive end-to-end encryption feature, then it won’t be able to stop or interfere when an unfavourable or hostile information comes to life.
Of course, there are some palpable consequences and negative effects resulting from the Telegram prohibition move. Multiple researchers found that, for instance, the ban has, obviously, obstructed individual messaging sessions, whether personal or professional messages; also, many politicians resorted to other media tools supported by the state which may not be as functionally effective as the Telegram tools; in addition, many businesses have been hindered due to the inaccessibility to the Telegram services.
VPN
Nevertheless, the decision to ban the Telegram messaging app came somehow abruptly and without a collective consensus from the citizens who are the most affected by the decision, and, consequently, many Telegram users are now seeking other tools – circumvention tools labelled VPNs – that enable them to use the Telegram in spite of the ban. Such tools are quite familiar because they grant accessibility to any service that may be banned in some countries. Unfortunately, the security departments are indeed developing their technological abilities and equipment in order to completely cut any connection to banned messaging services such as Telegram and Facebook – in specific communities. However, the on-going battle between maintaining the users' privacy sacred, and the demands of the governments to comprehensively access any social or messaging service, is very much unlikely to be halted any time soon.