Ever since it launched in August 2013, Telegram has been an exceptionally popular social media platform and messaging app, thanks to its utility and focus on privacy.
Its strong growth continued well into 2024. Finbold’s research found that, between April 10 and July 22, the platform added more than 485,000 monthly active users (MoU) every day.
The growth ensured that, by the middle of the summer, Telegram’s user base stood at 950 million - meaning that approximately one-eighth of humanity was using the app.
While coming just 50 million shy of one billion users is a major milestone, it is interesting to note that the social media platform has, at times, boasted even stronger growth. For example, in July 2023, the CEO and founder, Pavel Durov, revealed that 2.5 million people signed up to Telegram daily.
Despite Telegram’s popularity and momentum, the platform has been gaining a different kind of attention since August 24 when the French police arrested Durov at an airport near Paris.
Though President Emmanuel Macron and his government maintain that the arrest was not politically motivated, it has nonetheless sparked a strong backlash, with many interpreting it as a crackdown on privacy and free speech.
Indeed, even the allegations of poor moderation and failure to prevent illicit activity are founded, they, nonetheless, raise important questions in the debate on the balance between privacy, surveillance, and national security.
As Andreja Stojanovic, a co-author of the research, noted: "Even if genuine and undisputable illicit activity on Telegram was detected, the arrest is still likely to make many question if, by the same logic, the entire police force of a nation should be prosecuted whenever any illegal activity takes place in a private home or a hotel room."
Nonetheless, there are no guarantees the arrest will have a profound impact on Telegram itself and, indeed, the platform has already shown significant resilience to government pressure during the Russian 2018 ban.
