Telegram’s Pavel Durov finally exacts his revenge on the Kremlin
AFP’s Thomas Urbain emailed me some questions about Telegram and its evolution since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, publishing a piece on Saturday that has been picked up by the media (Yahoo! News, AlJazeera, TechXplore, Mint, New Straits Times, etc.) in which he quotes some of my answers.
Telegram’s backstory is an interesting place to start. Pavel Durov created VK, a huge success in Russia, only to find himself kicked out of his own company after it was taken over by the Kremlin. After exiling himself with his brother from Russia, renouncing his citizenship and passport, and going on to live a nomadic life under a Saint Kitts and Nevis passport, he created Telegram, turning it into one of the most popular instant messaging apps in the world, while resisting censorship in several countries, including Russia.
Telegram has been designed to be virtually impossible to censor, which is why it is being widely used in both Russia and Ukraine at the moment. Both sides see it as a censorship-free channel, although it has removed Russian state media channels, but which, like any platform, allows you to access the information you choose, depending on the accounts and channels you follow. Of course, such limited moderation means it has been also used by criminals, prompting a ban in Brazil (again…
