Headline, September 24 2024/ ''' TAME TELEGRAM TAKE '''

''' TAME 

TELEGRAM

 TAKE '''

FOR MILLIONS OF PEOPLE - TELEGRAM is like any other social media or messaging app. In Brazil, 167,000 people subscribe to a Telegram channel for news about reality shows and entertainment.

In another channel more than one million Telegram users in India prepare to sit their government exams. In another channel with more than three million followers, crypto trading tips are swapped in Persian.

BUT EVEN as it approaches one billion users,  Telegram has long behaved as if it were above the law.

Telegram combines the anonymity of the dark web with ease-of-use of an online marketplace. It is easy to search and find channels selling guns, illicit narcotics, prescription drugs and fraudulent A.T.M. cards.

Alongside photos and videos of available merchandise, dealers leave information on how to message them directly. Often they act like salesmen, celebrating deliveries and touting discounted prices.

One reason Telegram has become a haven for such activity stems from its unique features,  including ''channels'' and ''supergroups,'' which rivals like WhatsApp, were slower to add.

Telegram began as a standard text messaging service similar to iMessage or WhatsApp, before it began evolving in 2014 by adding broadcasting features. Those '' channels '' are now one of the platform's best known tools for sharing text, images, links and videos by news organizations, world leaders and government agencies.

Telegram then introduced '' supergroups, '' which harked back to an era of unruly AOL chat rooms. These groups attracted new users but also presented risks.

While WhatsApp kept group chat sizes in the hundreds and limited link sharing to blunt the spread of disinformation, Telegram did the opposite and steadily lifted the cap on group sizes. By 2019, a group administrator could run city-size chat groups with as many as 200,000 users.

Initially, this attracted new users interested in cryptocurrencies. In the crypto world, Telegram became a critical tool for talking about new digital coins and cultivating communities dedicated to, and often heavily invested in, particular currencies.

These tools also attracted a less savory group of users, including extremists, disinformation peddlers and sellers of illicit goods.

'' I don't want to paint with a broad brush,'' said Mr. Bragg, the Manhattan District Attorney, '' but I think the combination of a number of things -the encryption, the ability to reach large numbers of people, the ability to set up subgroups and their posture toward law enforcement - creates an environment in which it's not surprising that criminal activity is occurring.''

Nor has the platform dedicated significant resources to weeding this activity out. As Telegram ballooned, its staff barely grew. It now has contractors and artificial intelligence tools to proactively monitor the public parts of Telegram, which do not include many groups or individual chats.

The company said it had a moderation process, which includes constantly reviewing content, fielding user complaints and publishing daily reports on child sexual abuse materials.

EVEN SO, The Times found at least 50 channels openly selling contraband, including guns, drugs and fraudulent debit cards.

One channel that evoked the Wild West with its name called successful deliveries '' touchdowns,'' a popular slang in such groups.

[ THE TIMES analyzed 3,242, 664 Telegram messages from 16,220 channels. Prose Intelligence, a company that analyzes Telegram data, provided an initial list of channels.

Using those, the Times wrote code to download messages and expanded the network using hashtags, common phrases and forwarded messages.]

The Publishing continues. The World Students Society thanks Paul Mozur, Adam Satariano, Aaron Krolie and Stephen Lee Myers.

With most respectful dedication to the Global Social Media Platforms, Regulators, the Global Founder Framers of !WOW! - and then Students, Professors and Teachers of the world.

See You all prepare for Great Global Elections on The World Students Society - the exclusive and eternal ownership of every student in the world- and for every subject : wssciw.blogspot.com and Twitter X !E-WOW! - The Ecosystem 2011 :

Good Night and God Bless

SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless