"And that set off kind of a battle royale for control of the platform that Durov eventually lost," said Nathalie Mar茅chal of the Washington advocacy group Ranking Digital Rights. In the United States, Telegram's lower public profile has helped it mostly avoid high level scrutiny from Congress, but it has not gone unnoticed. In 2014, Pavel Durov fled the country after allies of the Kremlin took control of the social networking site most know just as VK. Russia's intelligence agency had asked Durov to turn over the data of anti-Kremlin protesters. Durov refused to do so. Anastasia Vlasova/Getty Images The picture was mixed overseas. Hong Kong鈥檚 Hang Seng Index fell 1.6%, under pressure from U.S. regulatory scrutiny on New York-listed Chinese companies. Stocks were more buoyant in Europe, where Frankfurt鈥檚 DAX surged 1.4%.
from ar
