telegram.org/blog/unsend-pr
Gaslighting as a first class feature:
"Now you can “unsend” messages you have received as well, and there is no time limit. You can also delete any private chat entirely from both your and the other person's device with just two taps."
That's a bit odd.
Conversation
To be fair there are some positive uses for that, but being able to delete someone else's record of a conversation within the app is also very weird and easily abused. Send someone an abusive message and delete it. Delete someone's message and claim they never sent it. And so on.
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I don't use Telegram and wasn't aware of the previous iteration of this. It sounds awful. After someone has already read a message you sent, I don't think you should be able to delete it from their end without their consent. Deleting their messages on their end is even worse.
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I read this the same way you do. I think fraudsters will use this to retract things that would otherwise be evidence / legally binding.
It's not fair to say "you should not have sent that in the first place" in all scenarios.
How about a "lockdown" feature that can be challenged?
GIF
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Right, if you made a mistake like sending something embarrassing, the person you're talking to can quickly back it up or screenshot it. I think deleting things on their end should require their consent unless they haven't read / seen it yet. Undoing before they see it is fine.
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There are so many ways it can be abused otherwise. Being able to send abusive messages including things like sexual harassment and deleting the evidence on their end is not a good feature. Deleting their messages is so weird and you can twist a record of a conversation like this.
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Tactically delete messages to make a conversation appear much different than what actually happened, etc. I can think of so many ways to abuse this feature. Disappearing messages can be nice. It should really be negotiated in advance with consent of both parties though.
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Also, no problem with deleting messages on the other side if it gives the other side the opportunity to reject deletion. I really don't like this feature as they've implemented though, even in their previous iteration with less capabilities. Not surprising from Telegram though.
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A message showing "This message / thread has been retracted by the other party" leaves visibility and opens up for legal avenues.
This could be to obtain a decryption key that, once combined with a key from one of the involved parties would restore the message / thread.