Telegram founder sounds alarm on digital freedom erosion in birthday message “We’ve been fed a lie”

Telegram founder Pavel Durov marked his 41st birthday today with a sombre message reflecting on what he described as the rapid erosion of online freedom.

As Caliber.Az reports, Durov published a post on his Telegram channel on October 10, saying that he did not feel like celebrating this year.

“I’m turning 41, but I don’t feel like celebrating,” he wrote. “Our generation is running out of time to save the free Internet built for us by our fathers.”

In his post, Durov lamented that the internet, once envisioned as a platform for the free exchange of information, has increasingly become a “tool of control.” He accused several Western governments of adopting restrictive policies that undermine digital freedom and privacy.

“Once-free countries are introducing dystopian measures such as digital IDs (UK), online age checks (Australia), and mass scanning of private messages (EU),” Durov wrote. “Germany is persecuting anyone who dares to criticize officials on the Internet. The UK is imprisoning thousands for their tweets. France is criminally investigating tech leaders who defend freedom and privacy.”

He warned that the world is “approaching a dark, dystopian reality” and that current generations could go down in history as the last to experience genuine freedoms.

“A dark, dystopian world is approaching fast — while we’re asleep. Our generation risks going down in history as the last one that had freedoms — and allowed them to be taken away,” he said.

Durov also accused modern societies of abandoning the core principles that sustained previous generations.

“We’ve been fed a lie. We’ve been made to believe that the greatest fight of our generation is to destroy everything our forefathers left us: tradition, privacy, sovereignty, the free market, and free speech,” he continued. “By betraying the legacy of our ancestors, we’ve set ourselves on a path toward self-destruction — moral, intellectual, economic, and ultimately biological.”

Concluding his message, Durov said he would not be celebrating his birthday:

“So no, I’m not going to celebrate today. I’m running out of time. We are running out of time.”

By Tamilla Hasanova