ALBAWABA - Pavel Durov, a Russian-born French and Emirati entrepreneur, co-founder and chief executive officer of Telegram Messenger, and the co-founder of social networking site VK, said he will update Telegram, a cloud-based, cross-platform, and instant messaging service founded in 2013, content rules in response to the criticism he faced recently.
Durov arrest in France
Durov, the Russian-French founder and CEO of Telegram, was arrested on two weeks ago in France while he was at Paris Le Bourget Airport. According to sources, he was detained under a police arrest warrant after being accused of crimes including fraud, money laundering, receiving stolen goods, and possession of narcotic supplies.
It is worth noting that Durov is still facing investigations in France over various alleged violations related to the encrypted messaging application. On the other hand, Durov published a message on Telegram yesterday stating that a minority of Telegram users are involved in crimes.
Commenting on the matter, Pavel Durov said: “While 99.999% of Telegram users have nothing to do with crime, the 0.001% involved in illicit activities create a bad image for the entire platform, putting the interests of our almost billion users at risk.”
Telegram new rules
Durov posted on X platform saying: “committed to turn moderation on Telegram from an area of criticism into one of praise.”
On the other hand, Durov published a message on Telegram yesterday stating that a minority of Telegram users are involved in crimes. (Shutterstock)
The new rules and regulations have not been finalized but they will mainly include: removing the Telegram’s “people nearby” feature and replacing it with “businesses nearby”, as well as disabling media uploads on the app’s blogging tool.
Telegram and Durov history
Pavel Durov is a Russian-French 40 years old technology entrepreneur, often referred to as the Russian Mark Zuckerberg. Durov founded VKontakte, a social network, back in 2006 when he was 22 years old. He sold VKontakte and left Russia in 2014 after he refused to cooperate with the Russian Intelligence. In 2014, he was named one of the ’30 under 30’ Nordic leaders. By 2017, he was nominated to join the World Economic Forum’s Young Global Leaders, representing Finland.
According to Forbes, Durov was featured on the 36th annual World's Billionaires list as the youngest billionaire on this list at age 37 with a total fortune of nearly $15.1 billion.
Durov founded Telegram, a cloud-based, cross-platform, and instant messaging service, in 2013. It is worth noting that the successful application competed instantly with WhatsApp, an instant messaging and voice-over-IP service owned by Meta.
In 2021, the company announced it was considering an initial public offering (IPO) to cope with the massive growth and development. It is worth noting that during the Russian-Ukrainian conflict in 2022, Telegram served as a vital information source for many users.
