Governments Wary of Secure Messaging Apps Amid Censorship

What’s happening: The founder of Telegram, Pavel Durov, was recently interviewed by Tucker Carlson. Telegram has become one of the world’s most popular communications apps and is known for its secure messaging and its refusal to disclose user information to governments.

• More: Durov was once CEO of VKontakte, a Russian version of Facebook. He later founded Telegram and, rather than hand over encrypted user data to the Kremlin, fled Russia and moved Telegram’s operations to Dubai.

Why it matters: The growing popularity of apps like Telegram comes amidst governments in the west increasingly censoring free speech.

A matter of security: Privacy and information security concerns became the main reason for people to abandon conventional messaging apps for more secure alternatives.

• Sharing data: WhatsApp, previously considered the most secure messaging app, is owned by Facebook and shares user information with the tech giant.

• Exploding popularity: Telegram’s refusal to hand over data and Signal’s end-to-end encryption, have resulted in their widespread use: Durov said that Telegram is likely to reach 1 billion users by the end of the year.

A news frontier: People are also increasingly turning to Telegram for news; individual users create “channels” that members can subscribe to. The app has become a major source of breaking information for the Russia-Ukrainian War.

Potential crackdowns: Germany considered banning Telegram over users spreading “anti-vaccine” theories, and Durov claimed that the U.S. government attempted to force him to install backdoors into the app to spy on users.