PM Pavel Durov knew that terrorists were using his app to communicate. And he decided it was something he could live with.
"I think that privacy, ultimately, and our right for privacy is more important than our fear of bad things happening, like terrorism," the founder of Telegram, a highly secure messaging app, said at a TechCrunch panel in September when asked if he "slept well at night" knowing his technology was used for violence.
"If you look at ISIS, yes, there's a war going on in the Middle East," he continued. "Ultimately, ISIS will find a way to communicate with its cells, and if any means doesn't feel secure to them, they'll [find something else]. We shouldn't feel guilty about it. We're still doing the right thing, protecting our users' privacy."
"I propose banning words. There's evidence that they're being used by terrorists to communicate," he wrote in a message on the Russian social networking site VKontakte (which he co-founded) mocking calls that ISIS channels on Telegram be removed. In a Facebook post, Durov blamed "shortsighted socialists" in the French government for the attacks as much as Islamic State militants.
"We were disturbed to learn that Telegram's public channels were being used by ISIS to spread their propaganda," it read. ". . . As a result, this week alone we blocked 78 ISIS-related channels across 12 languages."
But Durov, a 31-year-old Russian exile with a penchant for black clothing and a subversive streak, is no soft-hearted Captain Renault.
Vehemently anti-regulation, he allowed VK users to upload videos and music for which they didn't hold the copyright, a move that was slammed by trade organizations and the music industry. On Russia's Victory Day, which celebrates the end of World War II, he tweeted, "67 years ago, Stalin defended from Hitler his right to suppress the people of the USSR." Much of Russia did not find the joke funny.
But in another, more serious confrontation, he defied a demand from the Russian government that he remove the VK pages of opposition figures during disputed parliamentary elections in 2011. He tweeted his "official response": a photo of a dog sticking out its tongue.
"I never want things to be dull," he told Mashable.
Durov's anti-regulation, pro-privacy stance eventually cost him. In 2013, he became the target of a criminal investigation after he was accused of driving over a policeman's foot, according to Mashable. Durov claimed the alleged crime never happened, and the investigation was politically motivated.
The Kremlin "was coming after me" he said.
Then two original VKontakte investors sold their shares, representing 48 percent of the company, to an investment firm with close ties to the Kremlin.
Finally, in April 2014, amid increased pressure to release the data of Ukrainian protesters using his site, Durov gave up, according to the New York Times. He sold his shares and fled Russia.
Telegram was made generally available in the fall of this year, and the service behind its channel was launched in September. Designed to protect members' anonymity, the app allows users to send encrypted messages and establish "channels" of hundreds of followers without providing any information on their real identities. That makes it all-but-impossible for law enforcement agencies to track them - which is exactly the point, Durov says.
But it also makes the app attractive to extremist groups. In an Oct. 29 report, the Middle East Media Research Institute warned that the app's channels would become a "fertile and secure arena for jihad-related activities."
Charlie Winter, a senior researcher at the Quilliam Foundation, a research organization in the United Kingdom, told The Washington Post in October that he'd seen an Islamic State follower post, "Twitter can suspend me 1,000 times but I will always be on Telegram."
While tech companies like Twitter and YouTube have been active in shutting down Islamic State-associated accounts and removing propaganda videos, until Wednesday Telegram has been vehemently opposed to doing the same.
When M. Khayat, the author of the Middle East Media Research Institute report, reached out to ask about these policies, Telegram responded by saying that its channels are the "private territory of their respective participants and we do not process any requests related to them," he told The Post.
It's unclear what changed Durov's mind since Monday, when he wrote the VKontakte post mocking the idea of banning Islamic State channels.
But in a statement released shortly after the first, he rushed to clarify that the move wouldn't apply to any types of banned speech.
"For example, if criticizing the government is illegal in a country, Telegram won't be a part of such politically motivated censorship," it read. "While we do block terrorist (e.g. ISIS-related) bots and channels, we will not block anybody who peacefully expresses alternative opinions."
Not long after, Telegram's (former) Islamic State users took to the site to express their outrage. "The war on Telegram has started," one wrote, according to Winter.
"I think that privacy, ultimately, and our right for privacy is more important than our fear of bad things happening, like terrorism," the founder of Telegram, a highly secure messaging app, said at a TechCrunch panel in September when asked if he "slept well at night" knowing his technology was used for violence.
"If you look at ISIS, yes, there's a war going on in the Middle East," he continued. "Ultimately, ISIS will find a way to communicate with its cells, and if any means doesn't feel secure to them, they'll [find something else]. We shouldn't feel guilty about it. We're still doing the right thing, protecting our users' privacy."
"I propose banning words. There's evidence that they're being used by terrorists to communicate," he wrote in a message on the Russian social networking site VKontakte (which he co-founded) mocking calls that ISIS channels on Telegram be removed. In a Facebook post, Durov blamed "shortsighted socialists" in the French government for the attacks as much as Islamic State militants.
Advertisement
"We were disturbed to learn that Telegram's public channels were being used by ISIS to spread their propaganda," it read. ". . . As a result, this week alone we blocked 78 ISIS-related channels across 12 languages."
Advertisement
But Durov, a 31-year-old Russian exile with a penchant for black clothing and a subversive streak, is no soft-hearted Captain Renault.
Advertisement
Vehemently anti-regulation, he allowed VK users to upload videos and music for which they didn't hold the copyright, a move that was slammed by trade organizations and the music industry. On Russia's Victory Day, which celebrates the end of World War II, he tweeted, "67 years ago, Stalin defended from Hitler his right to suppress the people of the USSR." Much of Russia did not find the joke funny.
Advertisement
But in another, more serious confrontation, he defied a demand from the Russian government that he remove the VK pages of opposition figures during disputed parliamentary elections in 2011. He tweeted his "official response": a photo of a dog sticking out its tongue.
Advertisement
"I never want things to be dull," he told Mashable.
Durov's anti-regulation, pro-privacy stance eventually cost him. In 2013, he became the target of a criminal investigation after he was accused of driving over a policeman's foot, according to Mashable. Durov claimed the alleged crime never happened, and the investigation was politically motivated.
The Kremlin "was coming after me" he said.
Then two original VKontakte investors sold their shares, representing 48 percent of the company, to an investment firm with close ties to the Kremlin.
Finally, in April 2014, amid increased pressure to release the data of Ukrainian protesters using his site, Durov gave up, according to the New York Times. He sold his shares and fled Russia.
Telegram was made generally available in the fall of this year, and the service behind its channel was launched in September. Designed to protect members' anonymity, the app allows users to send encrypted messages and establish "channels" of hundreds of followers without providing any information on their real identities. That makes it all-but-impossible for law enforcement agencies to track them - which is exactly the point, Durov says.
But it also makes the app attractive to extremist groups. In an Oct. 29 report, the Middle East Media Research Institute warned that the app's channels would become a "fertile and secure arena for jihad-related activities."
Charlie Winter, a senior researcher at the Quilliam Foundation, a research organization in the United Kingdom, told The Washington Post in October that he'd seen an Islamic State follower post, "Twitter can suspend me 1,000 times but I will always be on Telegram."
While tech companies like Twitter and YouTube have been active in shutting down Islamic State-associated accounts and removing propaganda videos, until Wednesday Telegram has been vehemently opposed to doing the same.
When M. Khayat, the author of the Middle East Media Research Institute report, reached out to ask about these policies, Telegram responded by saying that its channels are the "private territory of their respective participants and we do not process any requests related to them," he told The Post.
It's unclear what changed Durov's mind since Monday, when he wrote the VKontakte post mocking the idea of banning Islamic State channels.
But in a statement released shortly after the first, he rushed to clarify that the move wouldn't apply to any types of banned speech.
"For example, if criticizing the government is illegal in a country, Telegram won't be a part of such politically motivated censorship," it read. "While we do block terrorist (e.g. ISIS-related) bots and channels, we will not block anybody who peacefully expresses alternative opinions."
Not long after, Telegram's (former) Islamic State users took to the site to express their outrage. "The war on Telegram has started," one wrote, according to Winter.
COMMENTS
Advertisement
Telegram-Backed TON Blockchain Under Threat of Phishing Attacks, Experts Warn Microsoft Copilot for Telegram Released in Beta, Available to All Users for Free Telegram Users Get New Business Features to Help Run Their Enterprise via the Messaging App "Jindal Group Executive Showed Porn, Groped Me On Flight": Woman To NDTV Massive Worldwide Microsoft Outage: Flights, Markets, Stock Exchange Down Over 300 Indian Students Return Home As 105 Bangladeshis Killed In Protests 1,100 Flights Cancelled In US As Microsoft Outage Disrupts Operations Elon Musk Congratulates PM Modi On Becoming Most Followed Leader On X With Shadow Cabinet, Naveen Patnaik Makes His Intentions Clear Track Latest News Live on NDTV.com and get news updates from India and around the world.