3 ms·

How about a business of selling troves of data to Russian government, for example? The only thing that makes such "business" seem unlikely is trust in Durov. It

How about a business of selling troves of data to Russian government, for example? The only thing that makes such "business" seem unlikely is trust in Durov. It can be unfounded given his claims like [1] > No, because I never took money from the government. I left Russia and lost a $3bn business there because I defended users' privacy from it. while he is often spotted in Saint-Petersburg, Russia. Moreover, Telegram's developers themselves sit next door to Vkontakte's (that was allegedly taken from him), so he's hardly dissident. I believe no Western media tried to look behind his bravado and this saddens me. I'll be happy to help with local sources if someone is interested, though. [1]: https://twitter.com/durov/status/872902721401237506 https://twitter.com/durov/status/872902721401237506

SomeStupidPoint 9y ago
Could you provide a little context to your comment? I'm not well read on this (eg, what company he lost, how he claims he lost it, etc) -- you seem to be responding in the context of a story, but not a story I know about.
- lambdadmitry 9y ago
  You can find a dry summary here [1]. Basically there is a nice story that Durov constructed over the years, the story of a tough libertarian who stood against the Russian government and was forced out of his business (Vkontakte), having to sell it for a fraction of its true price. He stands by his fellow users, willing to risk his business over their privacy, and now he runs Telegram out of his own pocket because… reasons. He is also in (implied) exile from Russia, he bought a citizenship of some island nation and is now a digital nomad. I believe that's the gist of his "official" image. However, there are cracks in that story to which I alluded in the comment. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VK_(social_networking)#2013.E2.80.932014:_share_changes.2C_IPO_cancellation.2C_Mail.ru_Group_ownership https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VK_(social_networking)#2013.E2...

SomeStupidPoint 9y ago

Could you provide a little context to your comment? I'm not well read on this (eg, what company he lost, how he claims he lost it, etc) -- you seem to be responding in the context of a story, but not a story I know about.

lambdadmitry 9y ago
You can find a dry summary here [1]. Basically there is a nice story that Durov constructed over the years, the story of a tough libertarian who stood against the Russian government and was forced out of his business (Vkontakte), having to sell it for a fraction of its true price. He stands by his fellow users, willing to risk his business over their privacy, and now he runs Telegram out of his own pocket because… reasons. He is also in (implied) exile from Russia, he bought a citizenship of some island nation and is now a digital nomad. I believe that's the gist of his "official" image. However, there are cracks in that story to which I alluded in the comment. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VK_(social_networking)#2013.E2.80.932014:_share_changes.2C_IPO_cancellation.2C_Mail.ru_Group_ownership https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VK_(social_networking)#2013.E2...