“Your intimate photos are safe”: Durov attacks WhatsApp over weak encryption — and accidentally makes the best argument for Telegram
Artis Kenderik
Pavel Durov this week once again took aim at WhatsApp — and this time with particular enthusiasm. The trigger was a class-action lawsuit filed in a California federal court against Meta, WhatsApp, and consulting firm Accenture: plaintiffs claim that company employees and third-party contractors had “broad access” to users’ private messages despite promises of end-to-end encryption.
WhatsApp’s “encryption” may be the biggest consumer fraud in history, deceiving billions of users. Contrary to its claims, the service reads users’ messages and shares them with third parties. Telegram has never done this — and never will.
The post gathered 5.2 million views, while Meta predictably called the accusations “categorically false and absurd,” reminding that WhatsApp has used the Signal protocol for over a decade. But the real highlight came shortly after: a user named Drew Miko replied that he prefers sending intimate photos via Telegram rather than WhatsApp. Durov didn’t hesitate: “Thanks for your trust — your intimate photos are safe with us.”
It’s worth noting that Telegram’s own reputation on privacy is mixed — in 2024, Durov was detained in France over concerns related to insufficient moderation of illegal content. Still, from a marketing perspective, the “nudes” reply worked better than any press release.
Do you trust statements like these — or is it always just marketing spin?
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