Is Telegram really safe? Or is it a honeypot? 📱🕵️‍♂️ We investigate the chilling story of Marina Matsapulina and other Russian activists who were arrested after their "private" Telegram chats were leaked to the FSB. We break down the technical vulnerability of Telegram's "Secret Chats" and why experts fear the encryption keys may be in Putin's hands.

1. The "Ghost" Messages: We analyze the arrests. Activists thought they were safe using Telegram to organize protests. We explain how Russian intelligence agents were able to read messages that should have been encrypted, leading to dawn raids and imprisonment. We discuss the theory of "Man-in-the-Middle" attacks and metadata surveillance.

2. The "Durov" Dilemma: He fled Russia, but did he cut ties? We expose the paradox of Pavel Durov, the billionaire founder of Telegram. While he markets himself as a libertarian exile fighting censorship, we explore reports of his secret visits to Russia and the suspicion that he struck a deal with the Kremlin to keep his platform alive.

3. The "Metadata" Trap: It’s not just the content; it’s the connection. We explore the security flaw. Unlike Signal, Telegram stores Metadata (who you talk to and when) on its servers. We discuss how the FSB uses this "social graph" to map entire dissident networks without ever needing to crack a single message.

The full list of sources used to create this episode can be found on our Patreon under https://www.patreon.com/c/Morgrain