Abandoning the existing app also means abandoning the existing users, although if Apple really gets aggressive with removal, that might become a non-issue for Telegram. I know I’ve had emulator apps in the past disappear from my account and device. It’s Apple’s playground, after all.
Getting a new app through Apple’s compliance labyrinth and past their Minotaur could be tricky, if the end result is a new app that still does what Mother Russia doesn’t like about the existing app.
Someone should make an Android game out of this process. Call it “App(le)roval”, or something better.
It’s not clear if those are separate incidents. Telegram is a secure messaging app; of course it will be used for both good and bad. ISIS has used it extensively, drug dealers use it extensively, and it’s used in other types of cybercrime as well. Why wouldn’t it be just as attractive to them as it is to activists in Tehran?
I mean, that’s kind of my point about being skeptical. It’s like shutting down a telephone exchange because some people planned a bank robbery on their landline. Just because you can find illegal activity on telegram doesn’t mean that telegram was facilitating it or especially suited for it. It’s not like the silk road here, we’re talking about a messaging app.
I’m surprised Apple doesn’t call Russia’s bluff. As a share of their global sales it must be pretty small fry - and telling Russia to bugger off isn’t like going up against China. Even if you allow for the distorting effect of the Russian elite, it’s a country with a smaller economy, (and much less welcoming), than Australia.
