Hm. As long as you only interact with Lemmy through a (trusted) VPN, or even through Tor, you're just as safe using Lemmy as you would be any other website. Servers can always see your IP by default, and the owners of those servers can be coerced to give it away by whatever external forces. If you hide your IP, they can't. That's pretty much it.
I've heard plenty of "LGBT Rights is wrong because it means forcing Western Values on other cultures" stories from Tankies. It was enough to prove Horseshoe Theory to me.
Being a tankie doesn't mean that you agree with everything any non-Western state does, it just means that you're critical of war and are willing to consider internationalist perspectives.
Telegram requires a phone number. That's a none starter for me. There's a huge number of services that don't. This might as well be a honey pot for trapping more lgbt people. Russia has used dating services before in their crackdowns.
Russians are very advanced when it comes to the internet.
I do not doubt that for marginalized groups such as the LGBTQ comunity, who have to watch every step they do. But given the restrictions placed on everyday online services in Russia I'd assume the average citizen has harder time.
Doesn't mean anything. Especially for groups who just want to communicate.
A subset of society that's marginalized at best and killed at the worst doesn't care about who can read and influence their communication? That seems highly shortsighted to me.
There is not enough evidence to support the probability of telegram making steps to make finding gay people easier for Russian authorities.
That we know of. Given that the company behind Telegram has been involved in various sketchy situations I wouldn't bet my wellbeing on a service that might or might not share information with a corrupt government..
There's a Russian guy I know in some... adult roleplay circles.., kinkiest chap I know. I worry about him... He tried telling me Telegram was "safer", didn't know what he meant.