But because group chats and the channel features are not end-to-end encrypted, Galperin said user privacy is potentially under threat. Pavel Durov, a billionaire who embraces an all-black wardrobe and is often compared to the character Neo from "the Matrix," funds Telegram through his personal wealth and debt financing. And despite being one of the world's most popular tech companies, Telegram reportedly has only about 30 employees who defer to Durov for most major decisions about the platform. "Your messages about the movement of the enemy through the official chatbot … bring new trophies every day," the government agency tweeted. "He has kind of an old-school cyber-libertarian world view where technology is there to set you free," Maréchal said. At this point, however, Durov had already been working on Telegram with his brother, and further planned a mobile-first social network with an explicit focus on anti-censorship. Later in April, he told TechCrunch that he had left Russia and had “no plans to go back,” saying that the nation was currently “incompatible with internet business at the moment.” He added later that he was looking for a country that matched his libertarian ideals to base his next startup.
from es
