It's Time for Furries to Stop Using Telegram

Soatok

May 14

I have been a begrudging user of Telegram for years simply because that's what all the other furries use.

When I signed up, I held my nose and expressed my discontent at Telegram by selecting a username that's a dig at MTProto's inherent insecurity against chosen ciphertext attacks: IND_CCA3_Insecure.

Art: CMYKat

I wrote about Furries and Telegram before, and included some basic privacy recommendations. As I said there: Telegram is not a private messenger. You shouldn't think of it as one.

Recent Developments

Telegram and Elon Muck have recently begun attacking Signal and trying to paint it as insecure.

Matthew Green has a Twitter thread (lol) about it, but you can also read a copy here (archive 1, archive 2, PDF).

First things first, Signal Protocol, the cryptography behind Signal (also used in WhatsApp and several other messengers) is open source and has been intensively reviewed by cryptographers. When it comes to cryptography, this is pretty much the gold standard. 2/

— Matthew Green (@matthew_d_green) May 12, 2024

Signal's client code is also open source. You can download it right now and examine the code and crypto libraries. Even if you don't want to do that, many experts have. This doesn't mean there's never going to be a bug: but it means lots of eyes. https://t.co/w5AxQoQeRF

— Matthew Green (@matthew_d_green) May 12, 2024

When Telegram launched, they had terrible and insecure cryptography. Worse: it was only available if you manually turned it on for each chat. I assumed (naively) this was a growing pain and eventually they'd follow everyone else and add default end-to-end encryption. They didn't.

— Matthew Green (@matthew_d_green) May 12, 2024

One concern with open source code is that even if you review the open code, you don't know that this code was used to build the app you download from the App Store. "Reproducible builds" let you build the code on your own computer and compare it to the downloaded code.

— Matthew Green (@matthew_d_green) May 12, 2024

Et cetera.

This is shitty, and exacerbates a growing problem on Telegram: The prevalence of crypto-bros and fascist groups using it to organize.

Why Signal is Better for Furries

First, Signal has sticker packs now. If you want to use mine, here you go.

For years, the main draw for furries to Telegram over Signal was sticker packs. This is a solved problem.

Second, you can setup a username and keep your phone number private. You don't need to give your phone number to strangers anymore!

Finally, it's trivial to setup a second Signal account using Twilio or Google Voice, so you can compartmentalize your furry posting from the phone number your coworkers or family is likely to know.

The last two considerations were really what stopped furries (or queer people in general, really) from using Signal.

How I Setup a Second Signal Account

I own a Samsung S23, which means I can't just use the vanilla Android tutorials for setting up a second profile on my device. Instead, I had to use the "Secure Folder" feature. The Freedom of the Press Foundation has more guidance worth considering.

I don't know anything about Apple products, so I can't help you there, but there's probably a way to set it up for yourself too.

The other piece of the puzzle you need is a second phone number. Google Voice is one way to acquire one; the other is to setup a Twilio account. There are plenty of guides online for doing that.

(Luckily, I've had one of these for several years, so I just used that.)