As much as I love IRC, it is fundamentally incompatible with the way people use
IM these days. Even if you gloss over the lack of "modern" features, you're
still going to have a very hard time with vanilla IRC on mobile where keeping a
persistent background socket open is frowned upon (if not outright illegal).
Don't get me wrong - I love IRC, and have used it as my primary social network
for years. And after spending a full decade trying to switch people over to open
protocols, I've found the hard way that the network effect trumps all.
I just don't see the average Whatsapp user ever switching to IRC.
It's amazing that technology is empowering these protestors, but I'm not sure a vulnerable group of people such as this should be leaving identifying information on these servers.
- You cannot sign up for Telegram without your phone number (even if it isn't public).
- End to End encryption exists but is limited to 1-1 chats.
- Telegram cooperates with data requests from law enforcements.
The kind of risk this puts them in cannot be overstated.
Don't get me wrong - I love IRC, and have used it as my primary social network for years. And after spending a full decade trying to switch people over to open protocols, I've found the hard way that the network effect trumps all.
I just don't see the average Whatsapp user ever switching to IRC.