"We welcomed more than 70 million users from other platforms," Durow's statement said. He called the new users "welcome to Telegram, the largest independent messenger service." Telegram does not abandon users when others do, he said.
Facebook and the services Instagram and Whatsapp, which also belong to the group, were down for around seven hours on Monday. Accordingly, users were unable to send many messages and posts. (Werbewoche.ch reported). Facebook blamed a faulty reconfiguration of routers for the total failure of the platforms and apologized to users.
Telegram was founded in 2013 by Pavel Durov and his brother Nikolai. The brothers had previously developed the Russian online service Vkontakte, which is similar to Facebook. In January, Pavel Durov reported the number of monthly active Telegram users at 500 million. (SDA)
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According to a study by Cyberint and Financial Times According to reports, a rapidly growing network of hackers is using the popular messenger for illegal activities such as selling stolen data. According to the report, there are channels for this, some of which have tens of thousands of subscribers. However, Telegram is becoming a competitor for classic channels of the cyber underground not only thanks to encryption. "It's more convenient to use than the dark web," Samra says. That's because the service is more accessible and offers more functionality. In addition, it is not yet as targeted by authorities as the classic dark web.
According to Cyberint, the number of mentions of "email:pass" and "combo" - hacker terms that indicate stolen email credentials - quadrupled on Telegram within a year. A public channel called "combolist," where hackers trade lists of hundreds of thousands of credentials, had more than 47,000 subscribers - but was removed by Telegram after the Financial Times asked for a comment. In addition to access data, various other things such as credit card data, Netflix accounts and hacking tools are also offered for sale on Telegram.
Underground boom
A look at the classic dark web also shows how strongly the importance of Telegram is growing for cyber gangsters. In 2020, there were 172,035 links to Telegram groups and channels in relevant forums. This year, there were already over one million such links, according to Cyberint. The anonymity of the encrypted service and the rather lax moderation of the Dubai-based service are probably partly responsible for this.
However, the platform stressed in a comment to the Financial Timesthat there was a policy to remove data shared without consent. An "ever-growing team of professional moderators" removes more than 10,000 public communities every day based on user complaints for violations of the usage policy. (pte)
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The surge in Telegram downloads came shortly after WhatsApp introduced new privacy terms. The new rules allow more data to be shared with parent company Facebook. The changes have drawn criticism because users outside Europe who do not agree to the terms before February 8 will be barred from the app.
"People no longer want to give away their privacy for free services," Durow said, without referring specifically to WhatsApp. Telegram is the "biggest haven" for those seeking a private and secure communication platform, he added. Durow assured users that his team "takes this responsibility very seriously."
The messaging app was founded in 2013 by brothers Pavel and Nikolai Durov, who also launched the Russian online network VKontakte. Because Telegram refuses to cooperate with authorities and share encryption, the app is banned in Russia and elsewhere. (SDA)
Talks are underway with cantonal economic development agencies about work permits, premises are being inspected in Zug, and exploratory talks have been held with the financial market supervisory authority Finma, according to well-informed sources. The Handelszeitung Telegram could not be reached for comment.
The settlement would take place in stages. Initially, research and development of the Messenger app would be consolidated in Switzerland. In the longer term, Telegram could also move its headquarters, currently in Dubai, to Switzerland. Telegram is in talks with Finma because the messenger service plans to integrate a payment service into its app. To this end, Telegram has created its own currency, Gram, and raised $1.7 billion from investors for this purpose in 2018.
Telegram would not be the first social media platform to choose Switzerland as a location in connection with a new payment system. Facebook located the association for its new currency Libra in Geneva in early summer. (pd)