Despite Telegram's origins, its approach to users' security has privacy advocates worried. After fleeing Russia, the brothers founded Telegram as a way to communicate outside the Kremlin's orbit. They now run it from Dubai, and Pavel Durov says it has more than 500 million monthly active users. "Russians are really disconnected from the reality of what happening to their country," Andrey said. "So Telegram has become essential for understanding what's going on to the Russian-speaking world." In 2018, Russia banned Telegram although it reversed the prohibition two years later. Anastasia Vlasova/Getty Images
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