What follows is my English translation of a post, originally in Italian, written and published by Nilo Vlas on his Telegram channel on Monday 28th October 2024.
Here's the bottom line on social media: It's utterly under the control of the governments in countries in which it operates. Anyone who thought Telegram - or any other social media - was "secure" or "safe" was delusional.
All these sites like Rumble, Substack, Odyssey, and the rest are "free" NOW - but won't be "free" tomorrow. And all of them have "terms of service" which prohibit discussing how to do crime or recommending illegal acts, let alone actually committing any.
There is no such thing as "Internet freedom" - unless you are self-hosting on the DarkNet anonymously and everything is encrypted and your OPSEC is top notch.
Physically you are not "free" unless you are armed, have bullet-proof false ID, and have enough money to be able to move around freely in transportation and life support terms. In other words, you live like a (rich) terrorist.
There are five rules of personal security:
1) No one knows who you are.
2) No one knows where you are.
3) No one knows your purpose or intentions.
4) You are mobile.
5) You have overwhelming local firepower, i.e., if the above rules fail, you have the ability to keep the enemy at bay until you can disengage and resume operating under the previous 4 rules.
A corollary of the above is no organization, however clandestine, can adhere to those rules. Only individuals can to the extent they have the resources to do so.
Here's the bottom line on social media: It's utterly under the control of the governments in countries in which it operates. Anyone who thought Telegram - or any other social media - was "secure" or "safe" was delusional.
All these sites like Rumble, Substack, Odyssey, and the rest are "free" NOW - but won't be "free" tomorrow. And all of them have "terms of service" which prohibit discussing how to do crime or recommending illegal acts, let alone actually committing any.
There is no such thing as "Internet freedom" - unless you are self-hosting on the DarkNet anonymously and everything is encrypted and your OPSEC is top notch.
Physically you are not "free" unless you are armed, have bullet-proof false ID, and have enough money to be able to move around freely in transportation and life support terms. In other words, you live like a (rich) terrorist.
There are five rules of personal security:
1) No one knows who you are.
2) No one knows where you are.
3) No one knows your purpose or intentions.
4) You are mobile.
5) You have overwhelming local firepower, i.e., if the above rules fail, you have the ability to keep the enemy at bay until you can disengage and resume operating under the previous 4 rules.
A corollary of the above is no organization, however clandestine, can adhere to those rules. Only individuals can to the extent they have the resources to do so.
Otherwise the state owns you. Period. Deal.
A very wise and true comment.
Further to this.
Anyone who thinks their Comms are not subject to monitoring, is clueless.
No matter what programs you use. Your device is compromised at a hardware level.
So no matter what software you use. Your device is being observed as are your Comms.
Keystroke loggers are as old as the Internet. There is a reason for this!
Even if there was some 'secure' messenger. If I can monitor every Keystroke you make, I k ow what you are typing!