Universal Basic Phone by Oyster Labs

❤️ Thanks everyone for your support and love! Last month I got interviewed by police for 4 days after arriving in Paris. I was told I may be personally responsible for other people’s illegal use of Telegram, because the French authorities didn’t receive responses from Telegram. This was surprising for several reasons:  1. Telegram has an official representative in the EU that accepts and replies to EU requests. Its email address has been publicly available for anyone in the EU who googles “Telegram EU address for law enforcement”.  2. The French authorities had numerous ways to reach me to request assistance. As a French citizen, I was a frequent guest at the French consulate in Dubai. A while ago, when asked, I personally helped them establish a hotline with Telegram to deal with the threat of terrorism in France. 3. If a country is unhappy with an internet service, the established practice is to start a legal action against the service itself. Using laws from the pre-smartphone era to charge a CEO with crimes committed by third parties on the platform he manages is a misguided approach. Building technology is hard enough as it is. No innovator will ever build new tools if they know they can be personally held responsible for potential abuse of those tools.  Establishing the right balance between privacy and security is not easy. You have to reconcile privacy laws with law enforcement requirements, and local laws with EU laws. You have to take into account technological limitations. As a platform, you want your processes to be consistent globally, while also ensuring they are not abused in countries with weak rule of law. We’ve been committed to engaging with regulators to find the right balance. Yes, we stand by our principles: our experience is shaped by our mission to protect our users in authoritarian regimes. But we’ve always been open to dialogue. Sometimes we can’t agree with a country’s regulator on the right balance between privacy and security. In those cases, we are ready to leave that country. We've done it many times. When Russia demanded we hand over “encryption keys” to enable surveillance, we refused — and Telegram got banned in Russia. When Iran demanded we block channels of peaceful protesters, we refused — and Telegram got banned in Iran. We are prepared to leave markets that aren’t compatible with our principles, because we are not doing this for money. We are driven by the intention to bring good and defend the basic rights of people, particularly in places where these rights are violated. All of that does not mean Telegram is perfect. Even the fact that authorities could be confused by where to send requests is something that we should improve. But the claims in some media that Telegram is some sort of anarchic paradise are absolutely untrue. We take down millions of harmful posts and channels every day. We publish daily transparency reports (like this or this ). We have direct hotlines with NGOs to process urgent moderation requests faster. However, we hear voices saying that it’s not enough. Telegram’s abrupt increase in user count to 950M caused growing pains that made it easier for criminals to abuse our platform. That’s why I made it my personal goal to ensure we significantly improve things in this regard. We’ve already started that process internally, and I will share more details on our progress with you very soon.  I hope that the events of August will result in making Telegram — and the social networking industry as a whole — safer and stronger. Thanks again for your love and memes 🙏

Universal Free Upgrade is Now Live! 🦪 Already purchased a UBS? Upgrade now at https://universalphone.xyz/signin Loving your upgrade? Retweet this post to earn up to 200 $OYS and 40,000 $DUROV, sponsored by https://t.me/PavelDurovOnTon.

🚀 TON price increased by 94% 1 TON = $5.21

UBS1 vs 100,000 button presses https://x.com/oysterecosystem/status/1830166370669224141?s=46&t=vxfrfnv0CrsWujS8YMQ_VA

More coming soon!!

https://x.com/oysterecosystem/status/1829601691433582705?s=46&t=vxfrfnv0CrsWujS8YMQ_VA RT to enter into a founder pass raffle

The Founder Pass is now live on-chain! 🎉 Ecosystem partners can easily verify UBS holders with just a few lines of code. 📘 Check out the details here: https://universalphone.gitbook.io/oyster-labs-docs

We stand with digital resistance and the fight for ownership! 💪 Like and retweet the first thread for a chance to win your share of 10,000 $DUROV. Let's show our support together. @Durov_Tonchain #FreeDurov

The UBS1 Universal Free Upgrade is available at no cost to all previous purchasers, including both Founders and FWB holders. The upgrade process will be announced later this week. Stay tuned! ❤️

Our journey to this upgrade was a challenging one. We faced numerous obstacles, from technical hurdles to moments of doubt. But through it all, your unwavering support and belief in us fueled our determination. The community we’ve built together became our greatest strength, inspiring us to push forward, even when the road was tough. We worked tirelessly to overcome every challenge, always keeping our commitment to you at the forefront. Today, we’re incredibly proud to share the fruits of this journey. The newly upgraded UBS1 is not just a product; it's a symbol of our collective efforts, the resilience of our community, and the trust you placed in us. This upgrade is a testament to what we can achieve together. This one is for us! ❤️💙

Upgrades and Shipment If you already own a UBS1, you’ll soon be able to start claiming your free upgrade with no added costs! We’ll announce the upgrade details this week. The first wave of shipments is scheduled for September, so please ensure your address is up to date as we finalize preparations.