Telegram founder Pavel Durov gave a long interview to the odious host Tucker Carlson. The main points

The founder of the Telegram messenger and the VKontakte social network banned in Ukraine Pavel Durov gave a long interview to the odious host Tucker Carlson.

Durov rarely goes to such conversations. This was the second major interview for him in the last 7 years. In it, he talked about pressure from the Russian authorities when he was the head of VKontakte, about the attempts of the American Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBR) to recruit a Telegram engineer, complained about the hegemony of Apple and Google corporations, praised billionaire Elon Musk and much more.

Durovʼs interview was published by Reuters, The Business Times, the BBC and many other publications. So, the main point is here.

"VKontakte", the pressure of the security forces of the Russian Federation and Euromaidan

The idea of creating Telegram came to Durov after searches and pressure from Russian security forces due to his refusal to delete opposition groups in VKontakte. His problems arose in 2011-2012, when the social network began to be used to organize large-scale protests. According to Durov, the Russian government asked to ban groups organizing demonstrations, but the company refused. It did not want to take anyoneʼs side and advocated freedom of speech and assembly.

In 2013, Russian security forces and authorities asked to provide personal data of those who were involved in protests in Ukraine. They demanded data from administrators of groups supporting Euromaidan. Durov says that he was faced with a choice: give in to his principles or sell his share, leave the position of CEO and leave the country. He chose the second option.

According to Durov, rumors about the messengerʼs connections with the Russian authorities are spread and supported by competitors who do not like the growth of Telegramʼs audience.

Business problems and pressure from the USA

Durov said that after leaving the Russian Federation, he tried to develop his Telegram product in different countries. Offices were opened in Berlin, London, Singapore and San Francisco, but the main drawback was bureaucracy. In Germany, it was not immediately possible to hire engineers from outside the EU, and in San Francisco there was close attention from the FBR and security services.

Durov claims that the agencies wanted to learn about the inner workings of the messenger, whose founder was from Russia. He considered it a violation of privacy. When he last came to the US with a Telegram engineer, Durov says, local services were trying to find out about the open-source libraries integrated into the application, trying to convince the engineer to include "certain tools" in the code, and possibly recruiting the engineer.

After that, Durov moved to the United Arab Emirates, from where he manages Telegram to this day.

Attention from authorities and corporations

Governments of various countries are putting pressure on the messenger. Sometimes it is justified if it is about the activities of terrorists or propaganda of violence. But the authorities often crossed the line.

Durov recalled how he received a letter from a Democratic congressman after the storming of the Capitol in 2021, asking for the data of those who then came out to demonstrate for Donald Trump. Otherwise, Telegram will be recognized as a violator of the US Constitution. Two weeks later, a letter arrived from a Republican congressman warning that the company would violate the Constitution if it released the data.

The main pressure on Telegram is exerted by Apple and Google, the creator of the messenger claims. They can remove the application from their stores, interpret the rules at their own discretion, do not like to compromise.

"When it comes to free speech, basically these two companies can censor everything you can read or access on your phone," Durov said, implying that corporations can read all user messages and other content.

At the same time, Durov understands that removing the messenger from stores is a serious situation. However, it is also serious for the corporations themselves, he believes.

The independence of Telegram and Elon Musk

Durov does not want his product to be a political player, so he will always be in favor of a neutral position. That is why he does not want to go and open offices in Russia, the USA or China.

Durov says that he is the sole owner of the messenger. He is the head of the company and the only project manager. The entrepreneur believes that this allows the service to develop faster. There is no HR department, and there are approximately 30 engineers at Telegram.

Telegram does not yet plan to go public and sell shares, as Durov does not want to report to a large number of shareholders, which could slow down development.

Durov likes that Elon Musk bought X (TwitterX) and made it a private company. He supported what the founder of Tesla and SpaceX is doing to develop the social network and how he innovates, even through trial and error.

Development of Telegram

According to Durov, the number of Telegram users is growing organically, 2.5 million register daily. The service does not spend a single cent on marketing, while competitors pour in "tens of billions of dollars." Durov expects that within a year the number of users will grow to 1 billion. Currently, there are 900 000 of them.