Oleksandra Matviichuk, a Kyiv-based lawyer and head of the Center for Civil Liberties, called Durov’s position "very weak," and urged concrete improvements. In the past, it was noticed that through bulk SMSes, investors were induced to invest in or purchase the stocks of certain listed companies. Messages are not fully encrypted by default. That means the company could, in theory, access the content of the messages, or be forced to hand over the data at the request of a government. For example, WhatsApp restricted the number of times a user could forward something, and developed automated systems that detect and flag objectionable content. In 2018, Russia banned Telegram although it reversed the prohibition two years later.
from ms
