Is Telegram the New Facebook? CEO Pavel Durov Reveals Policy Shift

Telegram, a popular social media platform, is again in the spotlight after its CEO arrest in the previous month. It is known for its commitment to privacy for everyone, with minimal involvement in users’ affairs. Thus it has gained a user base of more than 950M for this one property alone. At one point, the CEO Pavel Durov flew from Russia to establish this secure and private communication platform. However, now he has made its first step towards becoming other social media platforms like Facebook, known for its lack of user privacy. It indicates how no platform is immune to lawful objections.

Over the last decade, Telegram has consistently worked on implementing the best privacy policies for its users. It has provided features like self-destructing messages and private chats, attracting millions of followers. These followers have favored privacy over continuous surveillance from platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and many others.

Durov’s Arrest Became The Turning Point In Telegram’s Policy

Almost every social media platform has faced some sort of privacy scandal, costing the user’s trust in them, but Durov’s platform has always lived above that. However, with the recent illegal content policy shift on the platform, the concerns are real for the users.

Less than 24 hours ago, CEO Pavel Durove made its first online presence after arrest, releasing statement on French detention. The multi-billionaire has called his arrest Misguided. He further revealed that the company has a French spokesperson, and the government officials could have contacted them to reach Pavel instead of the harsh steps. This has cleared the user’s doubt about Pavel whether he is still facing legal issues or not. More importantly, the Toncoin price has also surged post this statement.

I’m still trying to understand what happened in France. But we hear the concerns. I made it my personal goal to prevent abusers of Telegram’s platform from interfering with the future of our 950+ million users.

My full post below. https://t.co/cDvRSodjst

— Pavel Durov (@durov) September 5, 2024

With his recent post, Pavel has questioned the creator’s rights, as to why the creators are held responsible for others misusing their creations.

Building technology is hard enough as it is. No innovator will ever build new tools if they know they can be personally held responsible for potential abuse of those tools.

More importantly, Pavel has presented a sneak peek at the upcoming network’s privacy policy plans. He revealed that they already worked on illicit content removal, but now they will work internally to eradicate this concern. It was also the reason why Pavel Durov was arrested in the first place, due to his failure to stop the spread of illegal transactions, child sex abuse,  drug trafficking, and much more.

This policy shift has already come into action as the platform has updated on how to report illegal content in private chats. Earlier, the platform announced that personal chats and bots were off limits, but now they provided a step-by-step guide on how to report anything illegal on the platform.

Is Telegram The New Facebook?

Facebook has borne the world’s criticism for years due to its lack of user protection and invasive data policies. The platform has worked in moderation with the government regulations, along with providing users the right to report illegal content. However, it is also known for mingling in users’ affairs. And now, Telegram’s policy shift seems like the beginning of such practices, where the future includes moderation and mismanaging the user’s data.

But, it is also the first step towards handling illegal content and making the platform safe. However, many critics have called it the beginning of content moderation and compromising the core value of the platform.

Regardless, what the CEO Pavel Durov is planning to do is unclear, and users might witness more similar updates. However, the current policy change is comparatively minor, which might or might not turn big in the future.