{"id":9778,"date":"2022-03-05T18:42:47","date_gmt":"2022-03-05T18:42:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/egrowonline.com\/?p=9778"},"modified":"2022-03-05T18:42:47","modified_gmt":"2022-03-05T18:42:47","slug":"telegram-app-rides-high-on-thirst-for-trustworthy-news-technology-sector","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/egrowonline.com\/?p=9778","title":{"rendered":"Telegram app rides high on thirst for trustworthy news | Technology sector"},"content":{"rendered":"


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I<\/span><\/span>n the days after Vladimir Putin\u2019s invasion of his country, Ukraine\u2019s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, used his Telegram channel to send a defiant video message from the centre of the capital, Kyiv<\/a>, calling on the nation to unite and resist the Russian attack.<\/span><\/p>\n

The WhatsApp-like messaging service, co-founded by exiled Russian billionaire brothers Pavel and Nikolai Durov, has become a key weapon in a digital propaganda battle that will ultimately boost its usage and investor profile ahead of a possible $50bn stock market flotation next year<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Ukraine\u2019s 44-year-old president, a former TV actor and comedian who campaigned over Telegram in the run-up to his landslide victory in the 2019 presidential election<\/a>, used the service to refute claims that the army had been told to lay down arms, that an evacuation had been ordered \u2013 and to galvanise the populace by proving he would not be leaving the capital.<\/p>\n

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<\/span>A video grab of the defiant message Ukraine\u2019s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy sent on Telegram.<\/span> Photograph: AFP Photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Telegram, which has more than 550 million monthly users globally, is already Ukraine\u2019s most popular messaging app. The service\u2019s much-hyped encryption and its ability to disseminate messages to groups of up to 200,000 \u2013 the limit on Facebook-owned WhatsApp is 256 members \u2013 has seen it dubbed the \u201capp of choice\u201d<\/a> for terrorists<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Telegram was banned in Russia in 2018 after Pavel Durov refused to give the authorities access to its user data. However, the crackdown, which included blocking IP addresses, was easy to circumvent, and the service continued to grow. Russia gave in and lifted the ban in mid-2020<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The app has been adopted as a leading source of news outside state-controlled media, and in the Ukrainian war it has become a 24-hour news lifeline for civilians, journalists and even the military.<\/p>\n

It has become the go-to platform for protest<\/a> groups of all kinds, from Extinction Rebellion to anti-vaccination groups, from the US Capitol rioters to pro-democracy campaigns in states including Russian-allied Belarus, Hong Kong and Iran.<\/p>\n

But Telegram\u2019s role in the dissemination of unverified information alarmed the 37-year-old Durov \u2013 who has been called the Russian Mark Zuckerberg, after he founded what is still by far the country\u2019s most popular social network, VKontakte (VK), in 2006.<\/p>\n

Last weekend, he said he was considering shuttering the service in the \u201ccountries involved\u201d for the duration of the conflict.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do not want Telegram to be used as a tool that exacerbates conflicts and incites ethnic hatred,\u201d Durov posted on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Hours later, he changed his mind<\/a>, following mass requests from users, who said it was their only source of information. \u201cDouble-check and do not take on faith the data that is published in Telegram channels during this difficult period,\u201d Durov advised.<\/p>\n

Jamie MacEwan, media analyst at research service Enders, said. \u201cThis is another example of Telegram being linked to resistance movements. It has very much been part of its reputation over the past couple of years as it has boomed. It is associated with being a safe haven.\u201d<\/p>\n

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<\/span>Telegram is regarded as a safe haven for resistance movements.<\/span> Photograph: Pavlo Gonchar\/Rex<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Durov is known for occasional eccentric behaviour \u2013 he once threw paper aeroplanes made from bank notes out of VKontakte\u2019s office windows, causing fights in the street below, and he publicly offered Edward Snowden a job<\/a>. He is now on a mission to make his second tech venture the success story that was ultimately wrested from him first time around.<\/p>\n

During anti-Putin protests in 2012, Durov became hugely popular for refusing to close down groups that were using the social media site to organise marches. Two years later, he was on the receiving end of a hostile investor coup that saw VK appropriated by Mail.Ru group, headed by Russian billionaire and Putin ally Alisher Usmanov<\/a>. In December, the Kremlin strengthened its grip on the company when Russian insurance company Sogaz, founded by giant Gazprom, took control of VK<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Durov sold up and left the business<\/a> as well as the country, becoming a citizen of St Kitts & Nevis in the Caribbean, after resisting Kremlin pressure to release the data of Ukrainian protest leaders.<\/p>\n

It is little surprise that Telegram, which he launched with brother Nikolai in 2013 and is operationally headquartered in Dubai, is built on security and privacy. <\/p>\n

The publicity-averse Durov, who has a penchant for dressing all in black<\/a> nevertheless spends much of his energy criticising the security standards of rivals, most notably world leader WhatsApp.<\/p>\n

In recent years security experts have in turn questioned Telegram\u2019s claims of superiority<\/a>, pointing out that, unlike rivals, it does not offer end-to-end encryption by default over all its messaging options.<\/p>\n

Moxie Marlinspike, creator of the popular Signal secure messaging app, took to Twitter last week to remind Ukrainians that Telegram is not as encrypted as people think, after what he alleged was a \u201cdecade of misleading marketing and press\u201d<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Telegram is the most popular messenger in urban Ukraine. After a decade of misleading marketing and press, most ppl there believe it\u2019s an \u201cencrypted app\u201d<\/p>\n

The reality is the opposite-TG is by default a cloud database w\/ a plaintext copy of every msg everyone has ever sent\/recvd. https:\/\/t.co\/6eRGIyXyje<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Moxie Marlinspike (@moxie) February 25, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Durov\u2019s experience at VK left him with an aversion to bringing in outside investors to fund Telegram. With a fortune estimated at over $17bn, he has been able to support it for most of its early life without outside help. But the search for alternative ways to raise the funds necessary to drive growth<\/a> led him into an ultimately disastrous foray into the world of cryptoassets.<\/p>\n

In 2018, Durov embarked on a plan to raise billions through the launch of a cryptocurrency<\/a> called Grams, a venture that sparked an investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)<\/a> in the US.<\/p>\n

Pre-sales ahead of the planned initial coin offering (ICO), which would have funded a proposed Telegram Open Network (TON)<\/a> system of apps services and a store of digital and physical goods, drew a rapturous response from an initial select group of investors, raising $1.7bn<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But two years later, Telegram shut TON down and agreed an $18.5m settlement with the SEC<\/a>, which had argued that Grams bypassed US financing laws. It ordered that the money be returned to investors.<\/p>\n

The setback in fundraising has not slowed growth, however: in early 2021, Telegram reported the biggest user boost in its history \u2013 25 million in 72 hours.<\/p>\n

Durov, who is now also a French citizen, credited the rush of new Telegrammers to an announcement by WhatsApp clarifying its privacy policy relating to data sharing with parent Facebook<\/a>. Durov added, rather grandiosely: \u201cWe may be witnessing the largest digital migration in human history.\u201d<\/p>\n