Pavel Durov has used his birthday message [on Telegram] to sound the alarm on digital freedom
Pavel Durov founded social networking site VK in 2006 before moving on to Telegram, which he founded with his brother Nikolai in 2013. On Durov's birthday, October 10, RT published the following article based on his most recent Telegram post. A screenshot of his post follows the RT article.
Western surveillance and censorship is eroding digital freedom and is turning the internet into a “tool of control,” Telegram founder Pavel Durov has warned.
The Russian-born billionaire has long portrayed Telegram as an outpost for free speech and privacy, contrasting it with what he describes as authoritarian censorship efforts by Western governments.
“Our generation is running out of time to save the free Internet built for us by our fathers,” Durov said in a statement on Telegram on Friday, marking his 41st birthday.
“What was once the promise of the free exchange of information is being turned into the ultimate tool of control,” he added, noting that nations once considered free are adopting authoritarian digital practices. He cited measures such as digital IDs in the UK, compulsory online age verification in Australia, and the mass scanning of private messages in the EU.
Durov said people have been misled by the West into believing that their mission is to dismantle traditional values – privacy, sovereignty, free markets, and free speech – and by doing so, society has embarked on a path of “self-destruction.”
“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 are running out of time,” he said.
Durov has long clashed with Western governments over Telegram’s policies, facing fines in Germany for not removing ‘illegal’ content and criticism in the US for allegedly enabling extremist groups.
Last year, he was arrested in Paris and charged with complicity in crimes linked to Telegram users, but was released on bail. He called the case politically motivated. He later accused French intelligence of pressuring him to censor conservative content during elections in Romania and Moldova, and condemned France for waging “a crusade” against free speech.
Durov has also warned that EU laws such as the Digital Services Act and the AI Act are paving the way for the centralized control of information.
Author
Pavrov, b. October 10, 1984, is of Russian (father) and Ukrainian (mother) descent. With his brother Nikolai, he founded spbgu.ru during university, then messaging forum VK in 2006 before Telegram in 2013. While Nikolai is an expert in advanced mathematics (Arakelov geometry) in which he holds two separate PhDs, Pavel's genius lies in internet technology and his passion for protecting free speech, freedom of information and keeping Telegram neutral and non-political. All have come at personal cost, reminiscent of Edward Snowden (who is a year older) and Aaron Swartz (who would have been two years older), though to-date not so great a cost as either of them. Personally, he reportedly aspires to simple, healthy personal lifestyle belied by his great wealth.
Source: RT
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