Pavel Durov said that over the past three days, the average daily increase in the number of new Telegram users was 8.3 million people - 25 million in total. This is five times more than in 2020 (1.5 million registrations per day). According to Mr. Durov, people from all over the world - from Asia (38%), Europe (27%), Latin America (21%) and MENA countries (8%) - have become new users of the social network during the specified time. MENA countries are a geographic region that includes the countries of the Maghreb (several countries in North Africa) and the Middle East.
      “People no longer want to trade their privacy for free services. They no longer want to be hostages of technological monopolies…” Mr. Durov wrote in his Telegram channel. Mr. Durov assures that his company does not enter into deals with marketers and government agencies. “We take this issue very seriously. We will not let you down,” he wrote. Earlier, WhatsApp updated the user agreement, adding a clause on the transfer of personal data to Facebook, which caused discontent among the users of this messenger. Mr. Durov confirmed doubts about the confidentiality of WhatsApp correspondence. He noted that it is impossible to check the encryption of the messenger, since the code is hidden.