> why is it always Telegram that gets talked about?
Telegram is in the news because the Russian government picks on them so much. Russian government concentrates on Telegram because it's popular with the generation of Russians born after the collapse of USSR.
Russians are the very best at memes, the memes get spread by Telegram.
Telegram has this concept of 'Channels', which are basically an easier to use Twitter.
A person makes a channel, a Telegram user can easily subscribe to it.
Many popular Russian politicians, entertainers and media figures have Telegram channels that are subscribed to by 10s of thousands of users.
I don't know how Telegram makes money, I cannot remember ever seeing an ad in Telegram.
I forgot to add earlier that Telegram channels are 1 way. You subscribe to a channel, you don't communicate with the person publishing content to the channel... in the channel.
The updates you get in your Telegram channel are easier to deal with than just following someone on Twitter.