"And that set off kind of a battle royale for control of the platform that Durov eventually lost," said Nathalie Marรฉchal of the Washington advocacy group Ranking Digital Rights. In 2018, Russia banned Telegram although it reversed the prohibition two years later. Founder Pavel Durov says tech is meant to set you free "Like the bombing of the maternity ward in Mariupol," he said, "Even before it hits the news, you see the videos on the Telegram channels." "The argument from Telegram is, 'You should trust us because we tell you that we're trustworthy,'" Marรฉchal said. "It's really in the eye of the beholder whether that's something you want to buy into."
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