The change in the privacy policy of the WhatsApp messenger has accelerated the growth in the number of Telegram users, the founder of Telegram, Pavel Durov, said. He explained that against the background of user migration, bots began to edit the WhatsApp page on Wikipedia and spread rumors about Telegram's work.
      Mr. Durov noted that all Telegram clients have been open source since 2013, and all chats in the messenger have been encrypted since its launch. Speaking about reports about Telegram's connections with Russia, he said that the company “does not have servers or offices in Russia,” and the messenger itself was blocked in the country from 2018 to 2020. Recall that the reason for the blocking was Telegram's refusal to provide the FSB with keys to decrypt messages. Roskomnadzor unblocked Telegram in June 2020 in agreement with the Prosecutor General's Office.