Telegram's founder Pavel Durov sends alarmist message to all Telegram users | Hacker News Reader

Telegram's founder Pavel Durov sends alarmist message to all Telegram users

31 pointsskerit30 comments

Out of nowhere I noticed a "warning" at the top of my Telegram chat list, it said:

"End of free internet: The free internet is turning into a tool of control"

When I clicked on it, I got transported into Pavel Durov's telegram group. Full of ramblings, NFT crap, and now a new message that read:

> I’m turning 41, but I don’t feel like celebrating. > > Our generation is running out of time to save the free Internet built for us by our fathers. > > What was once the promise of the free exchange of information is being turned into the ultimate tool of control. > > Once-free countries are introducing dystopian measures such as digital IDs (UK), online age checks (Australia), and mass scanning of private messages (EU). > > Germany is persecuting anyone who dares to criticize officials on the Internet. The UK is imprisoning thousands for their tweets. France is criminally investigating tech leaders who defend freedom and privacy. > > A dark, dystopian world is approaching fast — while we’re asleep. Our generation risks going down in history as the last one that had freedoms — and allowed them to be taken away. > > We’ve been fed a lie. > > We’ve been made to believe that the greatest fight of our generation is to destroy everything our forefathers left us: tradition, privacy, sovereignty, the free market, and free speech. > > By betraying the legacy of our ancestors, we’ve set ourselves on a path toward self-destruction — moral, intellectual, economic, and ultimately biological. > > So no, I’m not going to celebrate today. I’m running out of time. We are running out of time.

I think I'll be looking for yet another messaging service after this.

The message was good and timely. Let go your grip on those pearls.

More arguments less provocation please.

Earlier discussion here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45535384

For what it’s worth I haven’t seen this warning / message on my Telegram

Me neither, but this post came by recently: [0]

[0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45535384

I just got it. It was hiding under a birthday announcement.

Got it yesterday but after quickly glancing over I dismissed it - telegram spams with "provide your birthday so people could celebrate" banner

He has his own agenda. And probably asked ChatGPT to refine the text. It's quite dull. Also with constantly pushing Telegram as "secure" messenger (and belittling competitors for "innovating" less), for me Durov is just a clear-cut hypocrite (and a wannabe who enjoys running sticker sale campaigns more than addressing real issues - not just talking about them when he got affected). Not a person I'd trust.

How ironic considering how many features they put behind subscription - especially the very basic one of ignoring messages from unknown contacts. Not mention that encrypted messages are available only on mobile - if you pick proper menu option buried on contact card.

Seven years ago they wanted to become identity provider: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17618053

I always found it strange that I needed to:

1) Provide a phone number

2) Install a mobile app

3) Activate Google Play Services

...All to create an account for this "private" messaging service. After which I needed to disable location sharing and public display of a phone number I used. A recent change now gives the country of the sim I used when registering if I DM someone new.

Other than that, his message does speak to valid concerns. However, I'm not sure why Telegram needed so much personal data for sending private messages.

The phone number requirement can be circumvented by paying with crypto. At least it could back when I tried it in 2020.

Do you mean just buying a phone number with crypto or is there an option to just pay Telegram in lieu of using a phone number?

The latter.

Was recently posted on X and discussed here on HN: [0]

[0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45535384

Not sure which tradition of his ancestors he is alluding to.

What are the chances that Telegram is an op by the FSB?

They are very likely involved. It's shocking how many people use it as Signal alternative. Telegram did the marketing well. I have suspicion authorities around the world like it too because Telegram most likely gives police no fuss access.

What are the chances that Signal is an op ran by the NSA?

Or Whatsapp is an op run by Mossad: https://www.business-humanrights.org/de/neuste-meldungen/opt...

Didn't get this message.

Are you sure this isn't spam and that its actually coming from Durov?

it's 100% from Durov, I got it [0]

[0] https://t.me/durov/452

Pavel is right though.

Some of it is. Some verges on "far" right. E.g.

> The UK is imprisoning thousands for their tweets

is a misleading dog whistle.

https://www.met.police.uk/foi-ai/metropolitan-police/disclos...

There are ~2k arrests per year (not imprisonment), and it includes stuff like racial harassment, domestic abuse, and pedophilic grooming, over any electronic communications network including phone or email.

> I think I'll be looking for yet another messaging service after this.

You should always be doing this on a regular basis if there's any question marks around your current solution, with Telegram I have a few of those.

Was it ever meant to make us free in any way? Internet started as a gov project to create a resilient war-time network, a tool of coordination and control. It certainly wasn't "built for us by our fathers".

The gov project was ARPANET. The public internet was not intended to be a classified wartime network.

Then we had Internet2 which is backbone dedicated to research, again, not a tool for coordination or control.

If you were online in the 90s, a popular refrain was that the internet sees censorship as damage and routes around it. It was very much operated as a free space for ideas. There was no centralization of platforms, no apps, and anyone could host whatever they wanted.

Depending on your age, that is the internet built by your parents.

Err, you have some things mixed up.

The (simplified) sequence (in the US) was:

ARPANet (1969 - 1990)

"Commercial Internet" (1989 -)

NSFNet (1990 - 1996)

Internet2 (1996 -)

NSFNet, overseen and partially funded by (unsurprisingly) the National Science Foundation, had quite a number of restrictions and an acceptable use policy that prohibited commercial use. To get around those restrictions, the "Commercial Internet Exchange" was formed allowing commercial networks to easily interconnect.

As for "apps", the World Wide Web was invented in 1989 and publicly released in 1993. Prior to that, there was "Usenet News" and a service called "gopher". There were many centralized services that interconnected with "the Internet" (mostly NSFNet), e.g., Compuserve, AOL, MSN, etc.

By apps and centralized platforms I am referring to how most internet use happens in 2025. I get sent links to Meta properties or X and they are useless to me because I don’t have those apps or even accounts on them.

The majority of most peoples lives online are locked up and controlled by a few. Whereas anyone with any gopher client or IRC client could participate in any number of nets back then as equals.

TBH I had forgotten about Compuserv or AOL, because at the time that was a walled garden for a different class of user, and private sites have always existed.

Neither of which are really too relevant for the internet “built by our fathers” because I interpret that as the open, standards based internet that allowed all that innovation to take place

The beginning of the network that eventually evolved into the Internet was because an ARPA project manager had too many terminals on his desk. See J.C.K. Licklider and the SAGE Air Defense project.

The US government colluded with sites like Twitter and Facebook to not only censor Americans, but actually change the outcome of elections by silencing the voices of politicians.

These alarmist messages only seem to come out only when you think you will be affected. When the people you don't care about are silenced, it's not only business as usual, but gas lighting articles are written about how it's not happening.

Ignoring these issues 4 years ago led to what we have today. Many just don't care to fight it any longer because they know this is only about politics and not about freedom. it's the activist way.

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