The founder and owner of the Telegram messenger Pavlo Durov gave an almost hour-long interview to the American journalist, former Fox News host Tucker Carlson.
Main theses
- Durov noted that the most important thing for him is the independence of the messenger. He is proud that the app today is a symbol of freedom of speech and that there will never be censorship in the app.
- Durov tries not to come to major geopolitical powers (Russia, China, USA). Pavlo stated that he travels only to those countries "whose actions correspond to the values of Telegram."
- Telegram's office is located in Dubai (UAE) due to the country's political neutrality. Durov tried to open an office in Berlin, London and Singapore, but everywhere he encountered bureaucracy.
- Durov had the idea of staying in San Francisco. However, when he was returning home one day, three unknown men attacked him on the street and tried to snatch the phone from his hands. It came as a shock to him.
- Durov was pressured by the FBI in the States, agents of the special service met him at the airport, came to his home, wanted to "establish relations" in order to have more opportunities to control the messenger. The last time Durov came to the US with an engineer, the FBI tried to secretly hire his employee.
- All statements about his cooperation with the FSB and the Russian government have no evidence and are discrediting.
- Durov said that its application is often used during protests — in Belarus, Hong Kong, Kazakhstan, Barcelona. But Telegram is available to everyone — it's a neutral platform.
- Telegram's advertising costs are zero, and the number of users of the messenger may exceed a billion people already this year. Currently, the application is used by about 900 million people.
- The biggest pressure on Telegram comes from Apple and Google, not governments. The companies hinted that if their censorship rules were not followed, the messenger could be removed.
- US-developed platforms are unreliable from a security point of view. We are talking about both iPhone and Android.
- Claimed that Mark Zuckerberg tried to copy his ideas. During a meeting more than 10 years ago, Durov told a colleague about the current project, but changed the information, as a result of which Zuckerberg tried to steal the "fake" idea.
Durov also talked about the attempts of the American authorities to put pressure on the activities of Telegram
The company received letters from both the Democratic and Republican parties after the events at the Capitol in January 2021, he said. Moreover, their requests contradicted each other: Democrats threatened proceedings for refusing to disclose confidential user data, and Republicans said that if the company provided data at the request of Democrats, it would violate the US constitution. The platform decided to ignore both requests.
About money
“I've had several hundred million dollars in my bank account or in bitcoins for ten years. And I don't do anything with them. I have no real estate, no planes, no yachts. I don't think this lifestyle suits me. I like to focus on what we are doing with Telegram.”
To always be aware of the most important things, read us at Telegram
