Telegram is to blame. top. So stop. Stop.
Telegram saw a rise in popularity during the pandemic – that’s when people like Jess discovered it, and Michael’s parents, too. Before the pandemic, Michael’s dad, Carl*, had been into what he deems “more light” conspiracies, “like the fake moon landing, cold fusion, electric universe” (a theory that challenges the cosmology showing that the universe is gravity-dominated, arguing instead that a web of electromagnetism connects the planets). “But, when my dad got onto Telegram, it got much worse.”
He was talked into joining a group on the app, Michael, 26, who wishes to protect his identity, says. Telegram made him a crucial promise – to show what was “really happening” behind the pandemic. Really, it wasn’t so unusual and, in many ways, it makes sense. Many of us went looking for answers and sought control when the world seemed to suddenly fall apart. On Telegram, Carl believed that’s what he found.
Sigh… Telegram didn’t do anything. It’s just a messaging system with encryption. But this narrative is being used to try to undermine that security. Any messaging system can be abused. But the powers that be don’t like end to end encryption and the likes of Telegram are a ripe target, not least because the owner, being Russian, feeds into their Russian disinformation narrative. It’s all bullshit, but if they keep telling the same lies, then they build up enough groundswell for some sort of case for a back door into it – to stop paedos and terrorists, natch.
The question is: can it be regulated, or stopped – and if so, how?
I rest my case. The owner of Telegram is not one of the bad guys here. The Indy is. Our government is. Most of the MSM and the police are. And, no, this does not make me some sort of conspiracy theorist, it makes me someone who can see what is happening before my eyes.
The true question is *should* it be regulated or stopped? The answer is no.
Otherwise the Powers That Be will be encouraged to try and extend their control over what we say, read, eat, drink and the amount of exercise we should undertake daily. They will be disappointed.
History tells us that those who are in favour of censorship are always the baddies.