I think something like Simplex Chat is easier to use.
She links to a news article: https://www.saudigazette.com.sa/article/641746/SAUDI-ARABIA/Etidal-Telegram-remove-over-16-million-extremist-contents-in-early-2024
I don’t think Telegram denies doing mass surveillance. They might deny targeting queer groups and claim to only target extremist, whatever that means.
Maybe not Russia, but they sure are working with a certain government:
I mean it’s pretty bad to practice mass surveillance.
Maybe Write Freely? You get 3 blogs for 6 dollars a month or you can host it yourself since it’s open source.
https://write.as/pricing
https://writefreely.org/