Read on Twitter
Yes Telegram owner @durov received & accepted what effectively is an award, not a partnership: the Young Global Leaders membership of the World Economic Forum in 2017. Does this mean he passes users info on? I don't think so. https://www.weforum.org/people/pavel-durov
This is what @Snowden had to say about @durov. Since then Telegram introduced the option of end to end encrypted chats not saved in Telegram servers. These private chats cannot be forwarded, and none of the participants can capture screenshots of the chats https://twitter.com/Snowden/status/947211176542441472?s=20
The year after @durov received the WEF YGL membership award, Theresa May attacked @telegram from the WEF podium in Davos, calling it a "home to criminals & terrorists". Saying tech firms "need to do more" to stop illegal activity. This is a very good sign https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/davos-2018-theresa-may-attacks-encrypted-app-telegram-calling-it-home-terrorists-1656654
On the same day, Matt Hancock gave a speech about a new Digital Charter for the UK. He said: "The internet can be used to spread terrorist material; it can be a tool for abuse and bullying; and, it can undermine civil discourse, objective news and intellectual property"
. @Telegram's Mike Ravdonikas replied to Theresa May, Matt Hancock & others with this post called "Don't Shoot the Messenger", which twitter is not allowing me to add to this thread as a link. This is another good sign. I will extract key parts of it:
Mike Ravdonikas from @telegram: "Government officials call for backdoors in popular end-to-end encrypted apps to "stop terrorism", neglecting the fact that this can't and won't work." [Hint: it's not about terrorism it's about controlling the narrative].
"To this day, @Telegram has disclosed zero bytes of user data to third parties, including governments." [March 2017]
"What makes terrorism possible is not the weapons terrorists use, and not the messages they exchange – they have a rich history of improvisation in both these fields. But there exists one truly indispensable enabling element: the media."
"Cancer, heart disease, road accidents, and soap on the bathroom floor kill more people each day than terrorists have in any given year."
Think about this with reference to the media operation on Covid19.
Think about this with reference to the media operation on Covid19.
"So the main job of a terrorist [the media] is to convince you that their savage acts [Covid19 figures] are more relevant to you than the roughly 150.000 deaths from other causes that occur every day." 
"They need to distort the perception in order to make us feel threatened by them [Covid19 figures] and not by the myriad of other dangers that we are actually exposed to."
"Sadly, mass media willingly lend their magnifying glass to the terrorists [Covid19 inflated figures]. After all, unsettling news brings page-views and advertising dollars – especially when the news has to do with gripping pictures of victims."
"Thus, terror spreads on the wings of the click-hungry press, spurred on by those politicians who are looking for more power and less accountability."
spurred on by those politicians who are looking for more power and less accountability."
"We should never forget that terrorist organizations [i.e. the corporate media relentlessly promoting Covid19 inflated figures] are first and foremost after our fear. They will try as hard as they can to make us feel insecure in our own cities and in our own homes."
"We must not panic & fall prey to the many powers that use our fear of terrorism [Covid19] to achieve their own selfish goals. And we must always remember that terrorists [media] are fighting a battle for our minds, in our minds. In the end, it is up to us to ensure that we win"
!["We must not panic & fall prey to the many powers that use our fear of terrorism [Covid19] to achieve their own selfish goals. And we must always remember that terrorists [media] are fighting a battle for our minds, in our minds. In the end, it is up to us to ensure that we win"](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ErSFhEEXMAASGzY.jpg "\"We must not panic & fall prey to the many powers that use our fear of terrorism [Covid19] to achieve their own selfish goals. And we must always remember that terrorists [media] are fighting a battle for our minds, in our minds. In the end, it is up to us to ensure that we win\"")
Public channels like mine http://t.me/robinmg on @Telegram have clear rules: "Criticizing local authorities, challenging the status quo and engaging in political debate are OK. Meanwhile, promoting violence and calling for actions that can harm innocent people are not OK."
See Durov explain the rules for public channels here: https://twitter.com/durov/status/947179988213624832?s=19
I would like to end this thread with a reply that @telegram's @Durov posted to Theresa May, in whose cabinet Matt Hancock was already working, in 2017. It seems prescient & somewhat prophetic with hindsight: https://twitter.com/durov/status/872926990176841728?s=19
