Telegram founder commits to Ukraine user privacy

The Russian-born billionaire, co-founder of messaging app Telegram, has told Ukrainian users their data is safe.

In a Telegram post, Dubai resident Pavel Durov wrote: “I stand by our users no matter what. Your right to privacy is sacred – now more than ever.”

Telegram was the most popular messaging app in Ukraine, the Observer newspaper reported.

However, some experts have raised concerns about the security of user data.

Moxie Marlinspike, who created the encryption used by competing platforms Signal and WhatsApp, tweeted Many users thought Telegram was an encrypted app – but it was “by default a cloud database with a plaintext copy of every message everyone ever sent/received”.

So-called secret chats, voice calls and video calls are end-to-end encrypted with Telegram and can therefore not be read by the company.

In theory, however, the company could access other encrypted content stored on Telegram’s servers.

And there were concerns that it might be forced to share user data with Russia.

But on Monday, its founder wrote a Telegram post in which the company said it has “a commitment to protecting user data at all costs.”

In the post, Mr. Durov emphasized his Ukrainian heritage on his mother’s side, writing that the “tragic conflict is personal to both me and Telegram.”

“Some people have wondered if Telegram is somehow less safe for Ukrainians because I used to live in Russia,” he wrote.

“Let me tell these people how my career in Russia ended.”

Nine years ago he was the managing director of VK, a social network popular in Russia and Ukraine, Mr. Durov wrote.

“In 2013, the Russian security agency FSB demanded that I provide them with the private data of Ukrainian users of VK who were protesting against a pro-Russian president,” he said.

“I refused to comply with these demands because it would be a betrayal of our Ukrainian users.

“After that I was fired from the company I founded and had to leave Russia.”

He’d lost his company and home as a result – but he would do it again.

“I smile proudly as I read my April 2014 VK post showing the scanned orders from the FSB and my reaction to them – a dog in a hoodie,” wrote Mr. Durov.

Telegram, based in Dubai, reached one billion downloads last year.

Users can set up:

The President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy has used the app, which hosts many official channels of the Ukrainian government

Telegram was banned in Russia in 2018 after Mr Durov previously refused to hand over user details.

But the ban was reversed in 2021.

And since the invasion of Ukraine, some Russian-language channels have had growing audiences.

Jordan Wildon, an analyst at Logically who analyzes disinformation, said Russian-language channels it monitors on Telegram have gained 2.7 million followers since Feb. 24.

“About 800,000 of those were in the past week. We saw the most significant increase between the 24th and 28th,” he said.

On March 4, following sanctions and similar measures by major social networks, Telegram blocked state-backed Russian media from its platform in the EU.

Mr Wildon said that after that date, “there was a notable drop in the total number of followers. This appears to be due to actions taken by Telegram to restrict state media. However, the total number of followers on the 183 Russian-language channels we monitor has slowly increased back to pre-lockdown levels.”

Mr Durov has previously raised concerns about unverified information on the platform.

He had reportedly considered partially or fully shutting down channels in the conflict countries for the duration of hostilities, saying he did not want “the telegram to be used as a tool to exacerbate conflict and fuel ethnic hatred”.

But after appeals from users who said they relied on the app, he caved in, while warning: “Double-check the data published on Telegram channels during this difficult time and don’t believe.