WhatsApp's controversial privacy update has caused a mass migration of users to other platforms, including Telegram and Signal, as they seem to disagree with its decision Facebook who wants their data.
The Telegram service surpassed 500 million active users earlier this year, and now the founder of the company Pavel Durov reports that the number of accounts activated on the platform increased even more in recent days.
"Growth has accelerated so much that 'we may be witnessing the largest digital migration in human history,'" Durov said in a blog post this week. revealing that even political leaders have joined the platform.
The presidents of Brazil and Turkey have been using Telegram for the past few days, with the exception of the leaders of France, Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan and Mexico, who have been active on the platform for some time.
Durov stressed Telegram's commitment to transparency in communication channels, explaining that there are no active monitoring algorithms on the platform.
“Είμαστε περήφανοι που οι πολιτικοί ηγέτες, καθώς και πολλοί δημόσιοι οργανισμοί, βασίζονται στο Telegram για την καταπολέμηση της παραπληροφόρησης και τη διάδοση της ευαισθητοποίησης για σημαντικά ζητήματα στις κοινωνίες τους. Σε αντίθεση με άλλα δίκτυα, το Telegram δεν χρησιμοποιεί μη διαφανείς αλγόριθμους για να αποφασίσει εάν ένας συνδρομητής θα βλέπει content in which it is registered or not. As a result, Telegram channels are the only direct way for leaders to reliably connect with their audiences.”
WhatsApp has already announced a delay of 3 months for the new privacy policy, explaining that he wants to give everyone more time to understand what is changing.
However, the company states that consumers are not affected, as their data will not be shared on Facebook or third parties, because the new privacy policy only applies to businesses.
The new deadline for enforcing the new privacy policy is May 15th.
