#Telegram indeed is horrible for #privacy as a messenger. However, much of it's popularity could be due to it's other use: as an easy to manage, mobile-friendly public forum with free hosting or a social media channel. 

Organisations that are on government blacklists and are unjustly banned from #BigTech social media have a thriving presence on Telegram as long as the app is the website version, not from Google or Apple stores. 

So unless Telegram starts banning them from their non-appstore versions, people will most probably not look for better alternatives... 

However, they might consider switching if alternative apps are able to do what Telegram does but even better. 

Not endorsing any of this of course, just observations.