Telegram founder Pavel Durov said that people can use the social media platform Telegram to stay free from the Facebook-WhatsApp monopoly. The statement comes after the recent update in the privacy policy of the messaging app WhatsApp.
According to the new policy, WhatsApp users’ phone number, IP address and mobile device information will be shared with Facebook. WhatsApp users will have to accept the policy before 8th February 8, if they want to use their WhatsApp account. WhatsApp users are now uninstalling WhatsApp and looking for better alternatives.
At a time when WhatsApp’s new policy update has created a furore among the users, Telegram founder Pavel Durov has presented Telegram as an alternative to breaking the Facebook-WhatsApp monopoly.
Pavel Durov also said that Telegram can introduce an ad platform for the public but it will never force its users to watch 30-second ads. And the platform will not collect users’ private data for targeted advertisement.
Pavel Durov posted on his channel that “If Telegram ever displays ads, the ads will be shown only in large channels which are expensive to run due to server and traffic costs (like my channel @durov) and not targeted based on any private data (unlike Facebook).”
Pavel Durov added that he will not sell the company like the founders of Whatsapp. Telegram will remain independent and provide respected and high-quality service to its users. Telegram will set an example of perfection and integrity for other tech company.
On 9th January Pavel Durov wrote on his channel that Facebook has an entire department devoted to figuring out why Telegram is so popular. I am saving Facebook millions of dollars by giving away our secret for free: respect your users.
He also added that Telegram has about 500 million users and the user base is continuously growing. Now Telegram has become a major problem for Facebook. Facebook is not able to compete with Telegram in terms of quality and privacy. Therefore, Facebook seems to have switched to covert marketing. Facebook spent 10 billion dollars on marketing including paid bots on Wikipedia and other sites in 2019.
Pavel Durov also posted on his channel about bots that are spreading inaccurate information about Telegram on social media.
Myth 1. “Telegram’s code is not open-source”. But in reality, all Telegram client apps have been open-source since 2013.
Myth 2. “Telegram is Russian”. But the fact is – Telegram has no servers or offices in Russia and was blocked there from 2018 to 2020.
Myth 3. “Telegram is not encrypted”. But since its launch, every chat on Telegram has been end-to-end encrypted. Even its Cloud Chats provide real-time secure and distributed cloud storage.
