Will Telegram block the sake of the National Messenger, the new Jack Dorsy project and Nvidia records

Just a month after Vladimir Putin was concerned about the creation of a national messenger, the competing Telegram and WhatsApp began malfunctions, suspiciously similar to the test locks of Roskomnadzor. We found out that the authorities are thinking about blocking messengers and why Telegram has come out of confidence.

Dangerous experiments

Since the beginning of July, at least four times in different regions of Russia, two most popular messengers have stopped working at the same time: Telegram and WhatsApp (belongs to META, recognized in the Russian Federation an extremist organization). For the first time, users began to massively complain about the problems in the work of instant messengers on the evening of June 30. Further, the situation repeated several more times. The problems became so noticeable that Telegram had to explain that what was happening was in no way related to technical problems on his side.

It was precisely about short locks, and not technical problems, the technoxperts stated by The Bell said. In all cases, both messengers stopped working at the same time, failures in their work were not observed anywhere except Russia, and the problem itself was solved using VPN. This is most similar to the experiments of Roskomnadzor, which the agency conducts before it begins to seriously block some kind of service. The time is suitable: soon August, when Roskomnadzor loves to run into locks, taking advantage of the lack of users who went to the country or on vacation. At the end of July last year, the authorities began to slow down YouTube.

All these experiments are going on against the backdrop of a large -scale promotion of the future Russian “national messenger”, which was personally given by Vladimir Putin, who in early June at a meeting with government members demanded to force its creation, and at the end of June made the status of the national messenger official, signing the relevant law. Formally, the service that will take on this function is not yet defined. But in practice, there is no doubt that they will become a new messenger from VK - Max, which Maksut Shadaev Minister advertised at that very meeting with Putin.

“I am sure that the Max messenger is ready, Telegram will be blocked,” Mikhail Klimarev reasoned in a conversation with The Bell. “Probably, the state should help a little Telegram: either to worsen its connection, or, perhaps, at all,” repeated the same thought and a pro-government expert, former Vladimir Putin adviser, and now the head of the Development Fund of Digital Economy, German Klimenko. This is the only way to push users to the transition to the Russian platform, Klimenko reasoned this week on the air of the Live Nightingale.

Telegram is no longer safe

With the attitude of the Russian authorities to WhatsApp, everything is clear for a long time: a messenger belonging to an “extremist organization”, encrypting all messages with through encryption and “cooperating with the CIA”. But now the Russian authorities are considered unsafe and Telegram, which until recently Vladimir Putin put on a par with Russian services, and the presidential administration was called “conditionally Russian” and neugustible.

The discussions about Telegram blocking are really going, says the interlocutor of The Bell on the Internet market, although there is no specific solution on this issue right now, he believes. But, one way or another, the Kremlin has two views on this question - and one of them is quite radical. “Russia was in too dependent on foreign messengers, none of which is not safe enough for use, and something needs to be done urgently,” the interlocutor of The Bell retires this approach.

The attitude to Telegram could change after Pavel Durov fell under criminal prosecution in France. “In fact, he was in the hands of European countries that do not really love us,” says the interlocutor The Bell in the government. And for the authorities, this could become a very significant reason to doubt his safety. And this question is especially sensitive, given that Telegram is not only one of the most popular services in Russia, in which all officials and top managers of Russian companies still communicate, but also the main means of communication of the Russian military.

Since the arrest of Durov, the authorities have already introduced some restrictions on the use of Telegram: since the beginning of summer, state bodies, banks and business have been banned to use the platform for communication with users. This measure was served as a struggle against cyber abuse, but successfully solved other tasks important for the authorities - to slowly wean users from the problem service.

Advertising for beta version

“I downloaded the MAX application and just went nuts that it catches even in the parking lot. For two hours I had a fault without stopping and the connection was never interrupted, ”the star of the social networks of Instasamka in the advertising integration of the future national messenger convinces the millions of my subscribers with pressure . This is part of the large MAX promotion, which VK launched from its “ambassadors”, although in fact the messenger has not even been presented and still undergoes beta testing.

The main advantage that MAX is promoted in advertising is not integration with “public services” or new functions, but ordinary calls. Since March, they are praised for simply being and work stably. In this sense, MAX is aiming rather to the WhatsApp audience than Telegram - after all, not a single popular patch of Durov’s platform has a VK service. It is impossible to start a channel there, there are no “stories”, video messages, there are no quick payments with public services, which, in theory, should become the main advantage of the “national messenger”. In addition to basic chats and calls, there you can allegedly create bots (at least there is a bot with AI from the Sberbianker Gigachat) - however, in practice this function also does not always work. There are other problems that the developers and users who have not yet been resolved are complained about.

All this developers promise to add over time - for example, channels will appear in Max not earlier than autumn. The question remains: where does such urgency come from? Why promote raw beta version with many problems as a ready-made alternative to Telegram and WhatsApp and strongly drive users and business? Why did Maksut Shadaev sell Max to Putin as a ready -made national messenger? Why did VK urgently have to advertise the service that is obviously unprepared for the migration of users (this week the company reported on the second million registered users)? Why are regional officials transferred to a unprepared messenger-and will anyone go there in practice or will everything remain in Telegram?

All this PR campaign has yet led to one result: users who are afraid that because of the MAX the Russian authorities would really block Telegram, just like it was with YouTube, declared the “national messenger” a war. Part of the users download Max only to put it unit in applications stores, and then deleted - and the whole process is recorded and laid out in Tiktok. Others quite seriously test and criticize the messenger in the reviews - because the application has too much response, that you can’t hide the phone number for the search, that notifications do not work. The developers are trying to deal with this: “The support team” in response began to wind up the Max boots rating. But Google Play deleted part of the suspicious five -star service reviews and the rating collapsed again to 2.

Alien among his own

The National Messenger, for which Telegram can be blocked, also criticized those who make money on telegram channels, including wire-wire bloggers. Max is also criticized by the fact that he uses libraries from the "unfriendly" countries, transfers data to foreign servers and does not have a license of the FSB, and for collecting too much data, access to which the Russian security forces will receive. “In general, the problem is deeper than just an unfinished product. An error is in the concept itself. It is impossible to build digital sovereignty, trying to create one “right” messenger for all occasions, especially when this messenger is also tied to “public services”, ” complains one of the largest wire-wire telegram channels“ Rybar ”.

Here are what technical problems of Max have recently been written by experts and users:

• It collects too much data, including access to the exchange buffer, a list of installed applications, geolocation, camera, microphone, contacts, call history. That is, in addition to the fact that the company will collect and transfer all these data to the security forces, there is a large risk of leaks.
• Uses the OPENSOR-Bibliotexes from the "unfriendly" countries, including American ones.
• It does not have through encryption even in secret chats (and it is not clear whether it will ever appear). All correspondence will be stored on VK servers. There may also be problems with the deletion of the account - it will not be possible to get rid of the already created account immediately.

It is pointless to analyze claims and confidentiality in the national messenger, the technical expert of Roskomvoboda, whom The Bell spoke with. “The main thing you need to know is from Max they want to make, conditionally, the Russian version of Chinese WeChat. So, the data that the platform will collect and transmit can become more at any time. And naturally, if it is possible to collect data on the established applications, the user locations and the contents of his exchange buffer, then they will do it, ”he explains. The same weChat, which the Russian authorities are equal, at first did not collect such data about his users, and then began - because he could and because these data were interesting to the state.

But right now, the MAX creates the impression of a messenger collected on the knee - and some of the problems are explained rather than this, and not a conscious intention to spy on users. “It is strange to insert spy functionality into the messenger, which is just launched, which no one uses and it will not be clear whether it will be. At the initial stage, you just need to make it work normally, and all the functionality, which seems to be spy, so far, is quite possible, a bug, not a feature, ”the expert argues.

You should not count on the fact that an end-to-end encryption will ever appear in the national messenger-this function simply does not need public service, not for this it has been created. At the same time, the voice calls, with a high probability, are now encrypted normally, using open libraries, the interlocutor of The Bell believes: “I think that you still can’t listen to calls there. But over time, of course, it will be necessary to make it possible that it is possible. ”

What to do? To begin with, do not put a messenger until it is possible. And when (and if) it becomes difficult to do without Max - to use a separate “empty” smartphone for it, the expert advises: “It is clear that the Chinese security forces have access to everything that happens in WeChat. In Max, everything will be exactly the same - and it just needs to be borne in mind. ”

Blocking

The founder of Twitter conceived an unclosed messenger

The founder of Twitter Jack Dorsie announced the creation of the Bitchat messenger - fully decentralized and independent of the presence of the Internet, and therefore not blocked at the level of operators or regulators. The beta version of the program is available on the specialized website Testflight, all the documentation on GitHub . Dorsenger called the messenger an experiment in the connected Bluetooth networks and storage models, transmission and encryption of data for them. According to the concept, the information is stored exclusively on a local device, and a limited time, and never falls into any centralized infrastructure.

The very idea of a “hard” P2P is not new and was implemented in dozens of Bluetooth mixers and walkie-talkies. Bitchat differs in that it initially provides for the functions advanced for this class of applications - for example, group chats. Also in the specification-WiFi-mines between the "islands" of the coherent Bluetooth, and in the following versions-WIFI Direct for more distant independent communications. Dorsy’s asset after Twitter already has a Bluesky social network (37 million users), which became the main alternative to Twitter after the reforms of Ilon Mask. It is also decentralized, but still depends on the presence of the Internet.

Bigtehi

Nvidia was the first in the world more than $ 4 trillion. And this is not the limit

This week NVIDIA was the first in the world to overcome the bar of $ 4 trillion, securing the status of the fastest growing company in the history of the stock market. The breakthrough was expected: on Wednesday, when the company broke the bar, its shares went up by only 2.8% - to $ 164.42. Since the beginning of 2025, NVIDIA has risen by more than 20%, and from the beginning of 2023, after the ChatGPT release, by more than 1000%. Now Nvidia accounts for 7.5% of the S&P 500 index; It is evaluated above the stock markets of Canada, Mexico and Great Britain, combined. Now investors are waiting for reporting for the second quarter, which may become another driver of the growth of shares. But along with leadership, risks are also growing: 40% of NVIDIA revenue provides a narrow circle of customers from the “large seven”, and the unpredictable policy of Washington can cause a global failure in supplies chains.

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