This. Durov made his service such that only his company could see (and potentially abuse) the data, but people seem to have been under the false assumption that

This. Durov made his service such that only his company could see (and potentially abuse) the data, but people seem to have been under the false assumption that Telegram has better safeguards against that than other messaging apps when they don’t. In exchange for this power, Durov is held liable for the crimes he gave himself the right to eavesdrop on so none of this is all that surprising to me.