I got tons of comments on my post about Pavel Durov yesterday. I appreciate it, debate is the basis of freedom, and I love free speech lovers. So let's dive deeper into Telegram.
- Pavel Durov initially created VK, a kind of Russian Facebook not really appreciated by the Russian government who finally bought VK through Gazprombank...
- His greatest achievement: Telegram, a social platform with over 1 billion users, which made his fortune - around $15B.
- Durov's quote: "To be truly free you should be ready to risk everything."
Why Was Durov Arrested?
- Durov is Russian-born with UAE and French citizenship. Just a fact...
- France arrested him due to "lack of moderation and cooperation with law enforcement".
- Telegram indeed provides unfiltered information, unlike mainstream platforms.
How Does Telegram Work?
- There are in fact two options: (i) Cloud chats, that most people use, are public. The keys are stored in geographically dispersed data centers; (ii) Private chats enable client-to-client encryption and the keys are stored on your devices.
- Therefore, apart from private chats that only a few people use, everything else is encrypted on the servers and Telegram owns the keys, and hence they can see everything they want... That's why Telegram's protocol is not like Signal, which really uses end-to-end encryption.
- Telegram is NOT blocked in Russia. Signal is blocked in Russia. Just a fact...
What's Next for Durov?
- Durov recently tried to meet Putin, who declined. Therefore, he might have felt threatened... Durov knew he will be arrested in France. Will he negotiate a protection? It's a possibility, that might explain why Russia looks so nervous...
- For France, it's an opportunity to get some key information from Durov. As mentioned, Telegram can see everything that is exchanged on the cloud chats...
- We'll soon see if he's truly ready to risk everything for freedom.
