Free Republic

The encrypted messaging app Telegram has raised over $1 billion by selling bonds to foreign investors, its Russia-born founder Pavel Durov said Tuesday. Durov, 36, wrote on his Telegram channel that the bonds were sold to “some of the largest and most knowledgeable investors from all over the world”. He added that this will allow Telegram to grow “while sticking to its values and remaining independent”. Durov said the funds will fuel the app’s monetisation strategy that was outlined in December, according to which the platform will launch paid services this year.

In the first week of January, Telegram surpassed 500 million monthly active users. After that it kept growing: 25 million new users joined Telegram in the last 72 hours alone. These new users came from across the globe – 38% from Asia, 27% from Europe, 21% from Latin America and 8% from MENA. This is a significant increase compared to last year, when 1.5M new users signed up every day. We've had surges of downloads before, throughout our 7-year history of protecting user privacy. But this time is different. People no longer want to exchange their privacy for free services....

If you’re worried about privacy in the digital era, you are most probably privy to Telegram, the hugely popular uber-secretive messaging app, which boasted to be world’s fastest and most secure, or something along these lines. Okay, they all say that, but the bad news for our readers is that Telegram is now going to share phone numbers and IP addresses if asked by Big Brother. That would be your beloved government, or the “authorities” as they like to call themselves. The thing is, Telegram recently updated its Privacy Policy page, and if you go and check it out (nobody...