Telegram, one of many world’s largest social media networks, “will most likely hit one billion lively month-to-month customers inside the 12 months”, in keeping with the app’s billionaire founder Pavel Durov.
“Telegram is spreading like forest hearth,” stated Mr Durov to US commentator Tucker Carlson on Tuesday.
So what’s Telegram and why is it out of the blue so common?
At its core, Telegram seems fairly acquainted. It’s an encrypted messaging service the place customers can privately message, as nicely put up to a feed, much like different platforms.
Mr Duvrov stated he got here up with the concept of an encrypted messaging app as a method to talk whereas in Russia. His youthful brother, Nikolai, designed the encryption.
He left the nation in 2014 after going through stress to censor the social media community he was operating on the time, known as VK.
Telegram, which now has 900 million customers, is especially common in Russia and former Soviet Union international locations. It’s ranked as one of many main social media platforms around the globe, after Fb, YouTube, WhatsApp, Instagram, TikTok and WeChat.
It was blocked in Russia in 2018 after the corporate refused handy over encryption knowledge however two years later, Telegram was reinstated after the ban didn’t cease folks utilizing it.
Communications watchdog Roskomnadzor stated it had unblocked it as a result of the app’s Russian founder, Mr Durov, was ready to cooperate in combating terrorism and extremism on the platform, however that was questioned.
The app was so extensively used in the course of the ban, authorities departments such because the Russian Overseas Ministry and nationwide coronavirus taskforce had official channels on Telegram.
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After Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, customers flocked to Telegram for its unfiltered and generally deceptive content material concerning the struggle.
Initially of the struggle, the Kremlin introduced in a brand new regulation that meant people who spread “fake” information about Russia’s armed forces could be jailed for up to 15 years.
Entry to Fb was then partially restricted after Meta refused to stop fact-checking Russia’s state-owned media accounts.
The restrictions on what information Russians have entry to turned so extreme, a Finnish newspaper began hiding news about the war in a secret room in the video game Counter-Strike.
Individuals protest towards a transfer to dam Telegram in 2018 in Moscow
Mr Duvrov was decided to maintain Telegram “impartial” and “free from geopolitics”, he stated to Mr Carlson.
“I’d slightly be free than to take orders from anybody,” he stated.
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Telegram, he stated, was utilized by each opposition campaigners and governments however would take no sides.
“The competitors of various concepts may end up in progress and a greater world for everybody,” Mr Durov stated.
After making an attempt out London, Berlin, Singapore and San Francisco, he opted to maneuver to the United Arab Emirates because it was a “impartial nation” and was not aligned with any of the superpowers.
He dismissed a query about claims that Telegram was managed by Russia as a false hearsay unfold by his opponents anxious about Telegram’s progress.