Not entirely false, no. It does not have end-to-end encryption by default, and not at all for group chats, and the cryptography is a bigger unknown than with others.
> It does not have end-to-end encryption by default
That doesn't mean it "has a poor security record" (implying that the security is broken), it means it is not as secure as other options.
> not at all for group chats
May not be a requirement for group chats
> the cryptography is a bigger unknown than with others
Unknown does not mean bad, it means unknown. Almost definitely worse than Signal, but almost definitely better than Facebook Messenger.
To say Telegram is less secure than e.g. Signal is true. To say it "has a poor security record" is disingenuous and misleading. Once Telegram has had several security breaches, then that would be a fair phrase. Until then, there are levels of security for given threat models, and Telegram's is not as secure as others', by design.
Quoting Moxie: THere's nothing to be broken because there's no end-to-end encryption to begin with. Do you think nation state hackers publish their finding about the trove of private messages telegram's vast server complex holds indefinitely? hahahahaha
