I just found the mention of the state confusing because surely this app is equally untrustworthy regardless of its origin. American companies can't be trusted either—they've long since indicated a willingness to work with law enforcement and intelligence. E2e encryption is the only meaningful answer.
Yeah I agree with that, I am always baffled why people single out Russia as if it's the Cold War; none of the major powers can be trusted at all, some are just more covert than others but I guess "out of sight, out of mind" applies in full force even for a seemingly less-biased audience like HN.
As for E2E encryption, eh, this topic has been beaten to death many times. Its UX is difficult so many apps like WhatsApp and Telegram do UX tradeoffs, quite successfully so I'd say.
