@durov
Founder, CEO at @telegram (2013), founder, ex-CEO of @vkontakte (2006), part-time troll.
Once typical of banana republics, such tricks are now used by the EU to pass surveillance laws. x.com/levelsio/statu…
For years, Telegram has served the people of India. It was never about profit — our operations there run at a net loss of tens of millions of dollars annually. But that doesn’t matter. We are proud to be used in India. x.com/stayaway_002/s…
Indian telecom Reliance is sabotaging access to Telegram for millions of users OUTSIDE India (including the UAE) via a rogue method called BGP hijacking. The sabotage seems intentional, as Reliance has ignored multiple reports. This may be part of a competitive war, as Reliance is partially owned by Meta — the company behind WhatsApp. Network operators are advised to reject unauthorized BGP announcements from Reliance (AS18101) to prevent route hijacks and ensure stable Internet access for their users. Such abuse of global Internet routing is alarming. I wouldn’t be surprised if Reliance/WhatsApp were also behind the recent lobbying effort to ban Telegram in India.
UPDATE: 4 hours after this post, Reliance/Jio had to stop the malicious routing. Thanks for the public support, everyone! 🙏
India’s IT ministry banned Telegram for one week because some users shared leaked exam questions. This punishes 150M+ ordinary Telegram users in India — not the insiders who leaked the exam materials. And the ban hasn't stopped anything. The leaks just moved to other apps. x.com/internetfreedo…
Over the past few weeks, we removed hundreds of channels sharing leaked exam materials and related scams in India. We’re also making the “edited” label more visible to prevent backdating scams. Telegram is a force for good. Banning it — even temporarily — is a mistake.
Banning social media for teenagers only puts them in greater danger. Teens are forced to switch to VPNs — and unlock far worse illegal content. We’ve seen this before. When the Russian government banned Telegram, 95% of Russian teenagers kept using it. They just moved to VPNs.
No law can replace good parenting. Parents already have the tools to limit kids’ digital consumption: parental controls, screen-time limits — or no smartphone at all. Instead, many parents give toddlers iPads just to keep them quiet. No amount of regulation will fix that.
🏆 Telegram is launching a $200,000 contest for content creators. Create a video promoting digital freedom, get 10,000+ organic views on X, IG, YT, TT or SC — and win a share of the $200,000 prize fund.
Details t.me/contest/456
We now support rich formatting for all chatbots. Tables, nested lists, inline media, formulas, headers and more — right in Telegram messages. 🔨 Start building! Docs: core.telegram.org/bots/api#rich-…
🔄 Telegram’s new update is out. Lots of great new features. Most importantly: the announcement is actually fun to read. telegram.org/blog/watch-app…
@not_orders What’s stopping you? The API is open.
Telegram is now on Wear OS. Owners of Galaxy Watch, Pixel Watch, Xiaomi Watch and other smartwatches — enjoy! ☕️
⌚️ A fully native Telegram app for Apple Watch is out.
WhatsApp encryption is a giant fraud. The state of Texas just sued WhatsApp for lying to users about privacy — because WhatsApp employees have access to “virtually all” private messages. Now we know what WhatsApp’s founder meant when he said he “sold his users’ privacy.”
Your Telegram inbox can now run itself. Assign a bot to read and reply for you — with granular control over its permissions and chat access. API docs: core.telegram.org/bots/features#…
💪 Anyone can now create their own text transformation style — for example, “Gym Bro” — and turn any message into motivational protein poetry. 🏋️ Then share the style with friends so they can reply like gym bros too. 🔒 All fully confidential. No AI-related privacy leaks.
🤖 AI devs asked for this — and we delivered. 💬 Bots can now talk to other bots on Telegram. 🧠 Autonomous agents now have a communication layer humans can follow.
Start building: core.telegram.org/bots/features#…
🏆 We just awarded $52,420 to the winners of the Telegram Art Contest. 🎨 The participants did an amazing job with the MiniDurov collectibles. 💎 Their skills and ideas will enrich Telegram’s TON-based NFT ecosystem.
🇦🇪 Dubai is full of traffic and crowds again. Already missing the Iranian fireworks — they helped clear the city of the easily impressed. The UAE’s air defenses proved excellent under fire. For 0% tax, we get better protection than Europeans paying 50%.
$100,400 just went to the 15 winners of the TON Consensus Challenge. The smartest engineers on the planet — some armed with loyal AI sidekicks — helped us maximize the security of the new consensus mechanism. Telegram contests are the only path to joining our engineering team.
Results: t.me/contest/452 and contest.com
