Me, softening my stance on telegram: well it /offers/ encryption and at least its not WhatsApp

Telegram: [Censors lists of opposition candidates in Russia]

Me: Telegram is shit and obviously its encryption is fucking bullshit. Into the bin with it.

@celesteh
if you like living in a #silo then ok but #federation can be applied equally to #communications & help to reduce a Single Point of Failure from reoccuring!
+ why would you not wish to support local communities of #selfhosting folks?

@librecomms

Accessibility is a non-trivial issue as is the network effect.

I installed briar and got some friends to try it, but it drained my battery like whoah.

@celesteh yes, sadly with #Briar i believe it is the #AlwaysOn nature of #wifi #hotspot & #bluetooth
but I hear it is a known #issue and is being addressed by the devs.

@celesteh
re: accessibility YES indeed, there appears to be little #criticalmass despite all the "revelations" coming from folks like https://edwardsnowden.substack.com/

#xmpp i think is an easy fix for most
here however we are in the #matrix 😎

Continuing Ed — with Edward Snowden | Substack

The world's most famous whistleblower writes from exile on the intersection of technology, humanity, and power. Click to read Continuing Ed — with Edward Snowden, a Substack publication with tens of thousands of readers.

@librecomms @celesteh I think we are in the post-postSnowden phase.

Snowden phase: omg...It's all broken...we are all totally screwed...PANIC!

Post-Snowden: We are developing solutions and deploying fixes. Keep calm. Nothing is fucked.

Post-PostSnowden: We have solutions...but due to network effect and BigTech nonsense the results are at best...mixed.
@bob
yes i am inclined to agree...so how do we change this? #EnquiringMinds 🤔
@librecomms @bob Well we are making progress. The gold standard is encryption of content and metadata, and not many apps have reached that level. The waters are further muddied by blockchain grifters with entirely different agendas. The situation of Tor project - financially, and in terms of number of relays - to me seems unclear. Can we get more people promoting Briar? Maybe, but I don't see anyone other than the project itself doing that.

Like many of the current problems, these issues are highly systemic. Secure things aren't going to be made or promoted by the BigTech companies, because they always have one foot in government. The average endpoint is also highly compromised in terms of fingerprinting and wifi scanning.
@celesteh @librecomms
Battery drainage might improved since you tested last time.
In case you give it another try, please report back.

@briar @librecomms

I also got a new phone since then. Yeah, I'll give it another go.

It had a lot of good features - I kind of wonder if it should maybe be an app ecosystem rather than a single app, though. Like being able to read blog posts via your transport layer is great, but I already have a web browser.