Hacker News Reader

Comment by nobodyshere | Hacker News Reader

Normally I’d ask you for some kind of proof, but I know you won’t be able to output any of it.

The fact that there’s no proofs, alone, says something. Telegram has been around for 7 years. There’s no external funding and yet the project lives and grows. It’s either being funded from the Durov’s pocket, or from elsewhere. Take your pick.

To better understand who Durov is, look up the story about him throwing money to a crowd out of a window of his VK office.

He also believed that foreigners should be able to buy land in Russia to create small states within the country.

I would not (and I do not) believe in good intentions of this guy, at all. And in fact it is you (or Durov himself) who should provide a proof that Telegram is not getting funded by governments, being one of the most popular communication tools around. Especially after the failed ICO. The source of funds should be transparent.

Proof? The ICO they did isn’t enough? They act as a business, Durov keeps control, it did not create a foundation or a non-profit. What extra proof do you need?

I totally understand where you're coming from but in order to be better than Durov who claimed Signal had backdoor without any evidence, we can't say he's selling user data without evidence.

We also can't claim he's secretly handing all non-end-to-end encrypted group chats and one-on-one messages to Kremlin, or that he's an oligarch who made his money by spying on Vkontakte users. We also can't say it's extremely suspicious his arrest warrant only lasted two months, or that journalists who visited Telegram offices in Dubai heard the company Telegram shared floor with had never even seen Telegram employees enter the offices. There is no evidence Telegram is an intelligence agency front. None. We should periodically remind people of this.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com