@durov
Founder, CEO at @telegram (2013), founder, ex-CEO of @vkontakte (2006), part-time troll.
🚨 Two years ago, I was detained in Paris by police for 3 days — the longest they can hold someone before charging them. In an unprecedented move, French authorities accused the head of a major platform of crimes committed by its users. That investigation is still ongoing, although it makes less sense with each passing year. Why? Because we now have extensive evidence that Telegram was neither worse than other popular platforms at moderation, nor the worst at cooperating with authorities. So why was Telegram singled out? Over the last two years, we have seen a pattern emerge in multiple countries: Telegram is quietly asked to grant political favors — such as illegal censorship or surveillance. When we refuse, local media and “non-governmental” organizations launch orchestrated campaigns portraying Telegram as a cesspool of crime, from child pornography to terrorism. Our moderation is no worse than that of other major platforms. Yet these campaigns instill the idea that Telegram should be persecuted or restricted. Suddenly, officials start caring about crime and protecting children — but only on platforms that reject their secret political demands. Platforms that accept such deals get away with almost anything — including literally selling ads promoting child pornography. Is the French investigation against me political? It certainly fits the pattern we see elsewhere, mostly in authoritarian countries. And it definitely raises questions. In time, this investigation may itself be investigated — especially now that Macron’s war against free speech is facing pushback. This month, France’s Constitutional Council struck down his social media ban for children under 15 on freedom-of-expression grounds. In the end, freedom and truth will prevail ✊
Telegram has applied for the .gram domain zone. If the application is approved by ICANN, a billion Telegram users could get their own second-level domains — yourname.gram. Users would be able to set up their interactive websites hosted by Telegram — with one prompt ✨
Last night Apple briefly removed Telegram from the AppStore because a user had planted illegal porn in a public chat. Telegram was restored within hours. But I want to explain what happened — to warn other app developers and help protect online communities from similar attacks. Because Telegram quickly removes illegal content from public groups using all kinds of moderation tools, the attacker had to resort to a technical trick. He inserted AI-modified illegal content by editing an old message in an active group chat. As a result the content was effectively hidden from the group’s members, preventing them from seeing/reporting it. The attacker was a takedown extortionist: someone who demands ransom from group owners in exchange for not targeting their communities. These extortionists use automated accounts to plant illegal content in public groups and then report it directly to Apple, attempting to trigger the removal of legitimate communities whose owners refused to pay them. From a practical standpoint, illegal pornographic content in Telegram’s public groups is not a systemic problem. Our moderation is effective. The fact that attackers must resort to backdated, effectively invisible content and other technical tricks proves this. ⚠️ However, there are two important lessons here for app developers and online communities: — Extortionists have found a way to manipulate Apple into overreacting. Apple removed Telegram from the App Store before contacting us. This creates a potential systemic risk for every mobile app that hosts user-generated content. If an app used by more than a billion people can be removed from the App Store without prior warning, any app can be. — The tactics used by takedown extortionists are evolving, putting communities across social platforms at risk. Telegram has extensive experience identifying the tricks used by coordinated reporting gangs and protecting legitimate communities (even when doing so risks our own app being temporarily removed from the App Store). Other platforms may not be equally prepared. Stay vigilant! ☝️
Russia has designated me as a “terrorist” for refusing its demands for mass surveillance and censorship on Telegram. Under Russian law, I’m banned from “publishing information on the Internet” 😌 Russian officials are clearly confused about who can ban whom from the Internet 😉
🇬🇪Georgia is becoming a major business hub. The country’s economy doubled in 5 years and is growing by 8% a year. International tech companies pay 0% corporate tax and just 5% on dividends and salaries. Georgia is seriously underrated as a place to visit and do business.
🌍 This summer will see the largest rollout of a non-custodial crypto wallet in human history. ⚡️Instant zero-fee crypto transactions for over a billion users are about to become reality. We're bringing a native non-custodial Gram wallet to every Telegram app! 💎
Telegram now supports carousels. One small step for messaging, one giant leap toward turning cat photos into keynote presentations.
Telegram now has a Rich Text Editor. It supports tables, headings, inline media, lists, AI content, formulas, and more. Available only to Premium subscribers, because otherwise we’d have to call it Poor Text Editor ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I’ve just bought t.you (in addition to t.me) so it becomes a “we” problem. x.com/telegram/statu…
Well said x.com/telegram/statu…
Today’s Telegram update brings Rich Messages, Communities, Ephemeral Messages, and private GIF search. telegram.org/blog/communiti…
Hey @domainME, t.me links stopped working. Can you look into it? 🙏
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
