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Pavel Durov
4a63cb7532d747fb9e83f1aaa94a4ab0eed05bd54378fe6f8e38861c9d5771a1
CEO of Telegram

Hello #nostr 👋

This is Pavel Durov, SEO of Telegram.

I am amazed by the magnificence of the decentralized Nostr universe! It's stunning! I never believed that truly convenient messengers could emerge on Nostr, but I was wrong.

0xchat and Xchat pleasantly surprised me - magnificent messengers with a great future! I am also watching Keychat and White Noise with interest. All of these messengers are safer than Telegram.

Telegram has faced criticism for many years, and today I want to admit that Telegram is not a secure messenger. It's security and privacy claims were merely marketing tactics. It's time to acknowledge it.

Yes, Telegram does not have encryption enabled by default and is unsafe for private communication.

https://whonix.org/wiki/Telegram

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1789687898863792453.html

Yes, Telegram misled users about successfully passing a pentest competition

https://www.cryptofails.com/post/70546720222/telegrams-cryptanalysis-contest

Yes, Telegram uses an unencrypted ID that can be employed for spying on users

https://rys.io/en/179.html

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/11/18/kherson-resistance-partisans-russia-occupation/

Yes, Telegram have a backdoor in secret chats, allowing to read messsges on our servers

https://words.filippo.io/telegram-ecdh/

https://habr.com/ru/articles/252911/

Yes, secret chats are stored insecurely on your phone

https://habr.com/ru/articles/419551/

https://habr.com/ru/articles/442586/

Yes, Telegram has very weak forensic protection, and deleted messages can be easily recovered

https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3727641

Yes, Telegram has always had ties to the Russian government and its security services

https://www.occrp.org/en/investigation/telegram-the-fsb-and-the-man-in-the-middle

https://www.wired.com/story/the-kremlin-has-entered-the-chat/

https://istories.media/news/2025/03/17/telegram-wallet-zablokiroval-kriptovalyutu-rossiyan-vnesennikh-v-reestr-ekstremistov-rosfinmonitoringa/?tztc=1

I would like more users to adopt Nostr, for Nostr to attract more developers, and for us to see a new, uncensored internet.

Forward, Nostr!✊