MOSCOW — Telegram founder Pavel Durov mentioned Saturday the messaging platform will adapt to restrictions in Russia, making its visitors tougher to detect and block.
In an announcement, Durov mentioned 65 million Russians proceed to make use of Telegram every day through digital personal community (VPN) apps, with greater than 50 million sending messages regardless of authorities slowing down the service.
He mentioned efforts to ban VPNs have pushed customers towards workarounds reasonably than lowering utilization.
“Iran banned Telegram years in the past… however acquired mass adoption of VPNs as a substitute,” Durov mentioned, including that thousands and thousands of customers are actually bypassing restrictions.
Russia’s communications regulator slowed down Telegram in February below federal regulation, citing the corporate’s failure to adjust to requests to take away restricted content material.
Authorities have additionally intensified strain on overseas platforms, together with restrictions on WhatsApp, whereas selling a state-developed messaging app, “Max,” for wider adoption.
Durov mentioned the restrictions goal to push customers towards state-controlled platforms, accusing authorities of making new pretexts to restrict entry to Telegram.
The platform stays broadly utilized in Russia, together with for communication throughout varied sectors, regardless of growing regulatory strain.
