[liberationtech] Telegram and Iran and of course Google Play - FYI

[Nariman Gharib]

Hi Libtech,

Last week Amin Sabeti and I have launched a open source app of Telegram
with Psiphon VPN built into it.
www.TelegarmDR.com

https://www.rferl.org/a/iranian-expats-launch-own-telegram-with-built-in-proxy-to-counter-filtering-at-home-/29204673.html

In just one day it got more day 1m installs and also it was trending on
Google Play in communication apps category.

https://twitter.com/NarimanGharib/status/991756403256840193

Many of our friends have criticized us that we shouldn't developed this or
we shouldn't trust Telegram or... but we are care about people's access to
free and open content.

Then a day after that I have received this email from Google that your app
package name and your app name are similar to other services and they have
asked me to change our app name and send it back again to Google, but we
don't want to do this because our users will get confused and they will not
trust in us anymore. so our app status is still suspended from Google Play.
p.s I already approached to Telegram and waiting for their help too.

 https://twitter.com/NarimanGharib/status/991930080808067073

Then I searched Google Play for "Telegram" and I found out this:

https://twitter.com/NarimanGharib/status/992723876311457794
https://twitter.com/GEsfandiari/status/992728876156637185

Then today I have received messages from Iran that there are some apps in
Iranian app market CafeBazaar which can bypass the censorship but
government officials didn't remove them yet. like this one:
https://cafebazaar.ir/app/ir.hotgram.mobile.android/?l=en

but see what they did to Telegram app with more than 40m installs in Iran:
https://cafebazaar.ir/app/org.telegram.messenger/?l=en

Sorry for long email!

Best,

-- 
PGP: 0xa53963936999cbb6
@NarimanGharib <https://twitter.com/narimangharib>
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