Oh trust me I was, I tested pretty much all of them 😂
the majority it was displayed directly in the bio, and the rest told me in the first or second message
I trust you but I can’t relate to your experience, I always encountered honest people (at least with this subject)
Telegram is more a social media than a messenger app, group chats and channels can’t be encrypted but 1 to 1 chats can be
I’ve been in channels and group chats about Ukraine since 2014 (unencrypted as I said) and nothing serious ever happened,
no censorship, no ban (from Telegram I mean), russian trolls raids from time to time but easily contained
I wouldn’t use Telegram for day to day communication but to stay informed about what matters to you without big risks of censorship it’s great