04/24/2018 at 16:23 04/24/2018 at 16:50
Naked torso and Digital Resistance. How Pavel Durov became a symbol of freedom and a hero of a generation
The creator of the popular social network VKontakte and the Telegram messenger, Pavel Durov, was a popular person on the RuNet for many years - each of his posts received thousands of reposts and became a news item for the media. But the story of blocking Telegram in Russia brought Durov’s image to a new level - from an IT genius, he turned into a symbol of freedom and independence from state principles. At his call, people launch and configure. And many even say that Durov deserves to become a new political leader.
"Durov, return the wall"
It is difficult to find a more common phrase about VKontakte than a call to the founder of the social network to return the wall. Younger users no longer remember that once upon a time personal pages had ratings, they could write anonymous messages to each other, and most importantly, there was a wall on which they could leave graffiti and conduct endless dialogues.
In October 2010, the wall was removed, and the user’s personal page acquired a more or less modern look. The changes caused a wave of protest, which resulted in the phrase “Durov, bring back the wall!”
Back in 2014, Pavel Durov sold his share of VKontakte shares and ceased to be the general director of the company. But still, if any problems occur on the social network, many users write: “Durov, bring back the wall!”
Pavel Durov's views on life and politics
Pavel Durov has been actively maintaining a VKontakte page since 2007 and talks not only about the news of his business, but also reacts to current events or simply shares his views on life. For example, in 2013, he condemned the US fight against Edward Snowden and was glad that Russia granted him temporary asylum.
Pavel Durov shared his vision of the development of his native St. Petersburg. The businessman, who, as he himself states, now lives outside of Russia, published entire lists of reasons to stay in the country and not leave it. It’s worth living in Russia because of its talented and beautiful people, natural and cultural resources, low taxes, potential for development and freedom of expression - so Durov wrote back in March 2014.
But already in April, while leaving the company, Pavel said that needs to be changed in Russia so that he can return to his homeland. This is an honest elected judicial system, simplification of laws, economic autonomy of regions, tax reduction through the redistribution of profits from the sale of oil and gas, destandardization of education, abolition of “feudal remnants” such as military service and registration.
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Durov speaks out not only on socio-political topics. He gives advice to young people and encourages them not to pay attention to money, but to strive only for personal freedom.
There is an ancient saying: “The slave does not want to gain freedom; he wants to have his own slaves.” A person cannot become truly free while he exists in the dead-end paradigm of “slave - master”. In this system, every master is someone's slave, and every slave is someone's master. Remaining a slave to money, it is impossible to become the true master of your own lifePavel Durov
To the 10th anniversary of VKontakte Pavel told about the ten most important lessons he learned in the process of creating the largest social network in the CIS.
Pavel spoke several times about self-development and a healthy lifestyle. WITH fasting 2013, in which Durov calls for not drinking alcohol and junk food, playing sports and creativity, reading books instead of watching TV and helping other people, it’s hard to disagree.
And here fast 2017 for those who strive to create, included dubious items such as giving up medicines, meat and tea, and caused much ridicule. Because of this they became a meme.
Finally Durov tells why doesn't note holidays, and calls refuse from friends on social networks - after all, everyone has had all the most important contacts in messenger for a long time. Pavel also shares his views on his telegram channel. Many of his publications become news feeds for the media and cause lively discussion on the Internet. Pavel Durov is one of the leaders of public opinion for the Russian-language segment of the network.
Pavel Durov shirtless
In August 2017, Pavel Durov responded to another batch of photographs of Vladimir Putin on vacation without a shirt. He posted in instagram photo with a naked torso and announced the #PutinShirtlessChallenge.
My Instagram needs a serious boost to keep up with the shirtless photos of Mr. Putin. If you're Russian, you need to join the #PutinShirtlessChallenge (or you'll be forgotten). Two rules from Putin - no photoshop, no artificially pumped up muscles. Otherwise you are not alphaPavel Durov
The flash mob became popular; many actually began to post photos of themselves with a naked torso. It remains a mystery what Durov wanted to say - either to troll Putin, or to support the president amid the first news about the possible blocking of Telegram in Russia. The first version seems more likely, given Paul's free views. Plus he posted on VKontakte photoshopped with a fish and a hat, very similar to the original photo of Putin.
He tried the bare-chested trick again in 2018, when the Telegram messenger successfully overcame Roskomnadzor’s attempts to block it. Pavel posted a photo against the backdrop of the desert in Abu Dhabi, and it went viral in a matter of minutes.
Bad Pavel Durov
But in the guise of Prometheus, who brings progress to people, not everything is so ideal. Durov’s most famous prank is throwing five thousand dollar bills from the window of the VKontakte office in St. Petersburg. Everything happened on May 27, 2012, City Day. Durov and company released airplanes with money, and the frantic crowd rushed to pick them up. According to eyewitnesses, there were fights and broken noses.
A total of ten bills were issued. How explained Durov himself, in this way he and his colleagues wanted to maintain the festive spirit in the city.
Colleagues decided to support the holiday atmosphere in the form of a small action, but had to quickly stop - the people began to go wildPavel Durov
Another dubious story in which Pavel Durov was drawn concerned the dismissal of Anton Rosenberg, the former technical director of VKontakte, who moved to work on Telegram. Rosenberg had a disagreement over a girl with an old friend, Nikolai Durov, Pavel’s older brother, who created VKontakte and Telegram with him.
Pavel took the position of his brother, and Rosenberg was fired. But then Durov began to pretend that Rosenberg did not work at Telegram at all, and to call the former employee mentally ill. Anton proved that the Russian Telegraph LLC is the property of Durov, as is the Malaysian-registered company Telegram Ltd. different sides of the conflict, but this story as a whole clearly did not benefit Durov.
Durov's digital resistance
The situation with the blocking of Telegram in Russia in April 2018 became one of the most discussed events; for many users, the messenger became a familiar and convenient product for business and personal contacts. The more attention was focused on Telegram, the more attention Durov himself received.
Even before the blocking began, he said that the administration of the messenger would not give up the encryption keys and would preserve the users’ right to privacy. Immediately after the court ruled in favor of Roskomnadzor, which pleased supporters of the free Internet.
Will Telegram be blocked? Futurist has collected a complete chronology of the relationship between Roskomnadzor and the messenger. The FSB has been added to the main actors, demanding the provision of information that allows decoding user messages. “Terrorist messenger”, information attack of TV channels, “sabotage of state interests” and the reaction of Runet users - in this material.
Prologue
On the morning of June 23, a closed meeting of State Duma deputies with the head of the FSB took place Alexander Bortnikov , dedicated to cybersecurity. There, deputies discussed the need to block foreign messengers and create their own.
“Cybersecurity is now agenda number one, the creation of our own computer systems and software and the creation of hardware, the devices themselves, based on Russian developments. While the servers are with them (abroad), they have information influence in their hands,” said Dmitry Savelyev, first deputy chairman of the State Duma Committee on Security and Anti-Corruption in a conversation with Vedomosti.
Action 1
Almost immediately after the meeting, the head of Roskomnadzor Alexander Zharov posted an open message to the Telegram administration and the creator of the service on the official website of the department Pavel Durov , in which he urged the messenger to register in the register as a distributor of information and not ignore their requests. Internet Ombudsman Dmitry Marinichev suggested that Telegram’s response would be quite “caustic,” as a result of which Roskomnadzor would block the service.
If this happens, the messenger will be blocked until its management complies with the requirements. According to Zharov, Roskomnadzor sends requests to Telegram every day, but there has been no response to them yet.
Act 2
A few hours later, Pavel Durov responded to Roskomnadzor on his VKontakte page. “It is paradoxical that blocking US-controlled Whatsapp or Facebook Messenger is not on the agenda in Russia, but blocking Telegram, which is neutral in relation to Russia, is being actively discussed,” Durov wrote.
He also clarified that if Telegram is blocked, then the correspondence of Russian officials, their communications with friends and relatives and other sensitive data will be stored on American cloud services, which “from the outside looks like some kind of sabotage of state interests.”
Act 3
Roskomnadzor instantly responded to Durov’s words by posting a post on your groups on social networks.
“If we talk about the essence of Pavel Valerievich’s answer, I must say that he, unfortunately, is neutral in relation to terrorists and criminals who use his messenger, and absolutely ignores the safety of ordinary Telegram users,” Zharov wrote.
Act 4
The head of the Chechen Republic also entered into the dialogue Ramzan Kadyrov , who spoke out in his Telegram channel. He called on Zharov and Durov to sit down at the negotiating table and meet in Grozny, since he himself uses the messenger, but at the same time is against violating the laws of the Russian Federation.
Action 5
Deputy Head of Roskomnadzor Oleg Ivanov in a conversation with TASS, he spoke about the future of instant messengers, which “have 3-4 years left at most.”
“I would like to note one point here. According to analysts in the Telecom industry, messengers actually have a maximum lifespan of three to four years. They are being replaced by another technology - some kind of browser with all these functions.”
However, he did not say which analysts are predicting the fall of instant messengers.
Action 6
Pavel Durov responded to accusations of supporting terrorism on his VKontakte page, saying that the service regularly fights terrorist propaganda.
“This position is far from reality. Since the beginning of this month alone, Telegram has blocked more than 5,000 public channels and groups associated with terrorist propaganda. Anyone can get acquainted with the statistics of daily blockings of terrorists in the t.me/isiswatch channel.”
UPD
Action 7
From Friday, June 23 to Sunday, June 25, federal channels launched an information attack on Pavel Durov’s messenger. Dmitry Kiselev from Russia 1 named its “communication system for terrorists,” in addition, the presenter noted that Telegram is used by drug traffickers. On Channel One, Durov was accused of anarchism and also reported that a number of terrorist organizations use Telegram. As an example, the story mentioned the terrorist attacks of last year in Europe. On NTV told that the messenger is about to be blocked. The reason is that all other applications agreed to cooperate, but Telegram is fighting off the laws of the Russian Federation. And, of course, there are drug dealers there.
In addition, the FSB stated that Telegram was used to prepare a terrorist attack on the metro in St. Petersburg on April 3 this year, which is how the TV channels argued their position.
“The Telegram messenger is most actively used by members of international terrorist organizations on the territory of the Russian Federation, which provides terrorists with the opportunity to create secret chats with a high level of encryption of transmitted information,” says a statement from the Public Relations Center of the FSB of Russia.
Action 8
Pavel Durov answered this too, noting that Roskomnadzor employees do not understand the terms they use.
“The head of Roskomnadzor said that Telegram should give the special services “decryption keys” so that they can read users’ correspondence and catch terrorists. This requirement not only contradicts Article 23 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation on the right to privacy of correspondence, but also demonstrates ignorance of how communication is encrypted in 2017.
In 2017, the exchange of secret information is based on end-to-end encryption, for which the owners of instant messengers do not and cannot have “decryption keys.” These keys are stored only on the devices of the users themselves. Although Telegram was the pioneer of this technology, today end-to-end encryption is used by all popular instant messengers, including WhatsApp, Viber, iMessage and even Facebook Messenger.”
He also noted that blocking Telegram will not affect the activities of terrorists in any way, since they can use dozens of other messengers built on end-to-end encryption.
Action 9
Durov answered FSB on the claim that criminals use Telegram when planning terrorist attacks.
“The timing of the information that almost three months ago Telegram was allegedly used in preparing a terrorist attack raises questions. It’s sad if Russia’s intelligence services exploit such a tragedy as a pretext to increase their influence and control over the population.”
He further noted that any messenger can be used for criminal purposes, and “encrypting these services either protects all users equally, or puts them all at risk. Refusal of end-to-end encryption in a single country will leave tens of millions of people defenseless against attacks by hackers and blackmail by corrupt officials.” The creator of Telegram also points out that, for example, to carry out last year’s attack in Paris, terrorists used regular SMS and burner phones.
Action 10
Runet users are actively discussing the situation around Telegram.
The reaction from the Facebook community was no less vibrant.
Publisher Ilya Krasilshchik started the discussion about the future of Telegram, remembering the finalists of the state messenger competition.
“A few obvious thoughts about telegram:
1. it will be blocked (the initiative is not Roskomnadzor, obviously it does not make RKN better)
2. will be blocked absolutely through the ass
3. Stores will not delete it
4. everything will work, just a little worse
5. Durov does everything right
6. This level of blocking has never happened in Russia. This is a new level that opens up great opportunities for future blockings.
7. "Sybrus" ("Cybernika"), Staply ("Primavera"), "Answer" (UKT), Actor ("Actor"), eMotion ("Megafon"), "Cube" ("Platform cube"), Flodium ("Ommji Technology"), Titanium (Nexters), ICQ2016 (Mail.Ru), Dialog ("Dialogue"), Bellchat (FSUE "GlavNIVTS" of the Administration of the President of the Russian Federation), B2G Messenger ("Rostelecom") and RTIMS ("RT -Inform")
Do you know what this is? This is a list of finalists of the state messenger competition (the list is taken from the April article of Gazeta.ru). They won’t be able to create any messenger that will be even remotely popular, but they will spend money. And they will also cause harm - these people go to meetings in the State Duma and talk about how important it is to start regulating instant messengers and how zealously they are ready to cooperate with any regulatory authorities.
And about terrorists it’s both laughter and sin, but what a great opportunity for the FSB to explain why they missed the terrorist attack.”
Stepan Danilov , founder of MeYou networking service, made his prediction regarding blocking of other sites. In his opinion, Facebook will be next to Telegram.
“Telegram will be blocked one of these days. Unfortunately. Durov, naturally, in order not to discredit the image of the “safe” messenger, will not provide anything. Roskomnadzor, naturally, once it went public with this statement, will not be able to roll back and be spat on. As in the story with Linkedin, the Russian people will be heroic and write that “we can easily bypass all this through a VPN.” Installing inconvenient, paid padding in phones and computers. Naturally, like the 0.0001% of terrorist criminals that the RKN is supposedly trying to track down.
I am extremely surprised by people on Facebook who get into arguments or laugh about how we’ll switch to another messenger, install a VPN, etc. My classmates wouldn’t surprise me because there are vegetables.
And people on Facebook are surprising, who, instead of asking familiar officials or government supporters like Klimenko ******* with questions, present them with somehow, write their opinion instead of posts about the weather or something even more important you write.
That is, to show your massive civic position of not supporting what the authorities are doing, instead of fighting in the comments with those who do not know how to VPN.
Naturally, the RKN did not plan to catch anyone. He just needs to read the correspondence of oppositionists, collect compromising evidence on entrepreneurs (we are all fakes, violations of legal entities, if any, we discuss transfers with employees in correspondence) and monitor/ban growing groups of opposition discussions or discontent and their new opinion leaders.
Businesses were built around Linkedin and Telegram: In addition to the usual communication tool, it was used by:
- like the media
– as a sales channel with analytics
– as a feedback form on websites
– how bot chat features
– as group communities, clubs
– like telephony services for small businesses
– authorization to sites
So, for the sake of control, and not for the sake of 0.0001% of criminals, to degrade another working tool for 99.9999% of users
I had a colleague from Turkmenistan, a very closed country where the KGB has dominance over almost 100% of the lives of citizens, almost everything on the Internet is prohibited. And people live at great risk of prison, using minimally, at their own peril and risk.
Exit visas, almost all business is state-owned, only permitted media with propaganda, wiretapping, no opposition, etc. A copy of North Korea, only it lives on gas revenues. So he managed to migrate to Russia, because somehow you can live there only as a vegetable and only in silence. Because you cannot fight this alone, continuing to support such a state with your own taxes. You can only leave or live in silence.
Linkedin -> Telegram -> Facebook
Facebook will be next.”
Even Patriarch Kirill could speak out about the personality of Pavel Durov, as he did on his Facebook page joked David Homak.
“Pavel Durov is the Antichrist!”: Patriarch Kirill said that the actions of the creator of Telegram go against “the moral nature of man, with conscience.”
All considerations of privacy are “secondary to morality,” he said. “I am deeply convinced that this temptation, if you like, the historical temptation that led Durov to making these simply out of the ordinary decisions, that all this must pass, because otherwise human society, having broken the connection between freedom and moral responsibility, between law and moral principles, will become unviable,” said Patriarch Kirill.”
But then it turned out that, unfortunately, there is some truth in this joke.
Act 11
The head of Roskomnadzor, Alexander Zharov, responded to Pavel Durov regarding the right of citizens to personal correspondence and what Telegram should do to avoid blocking:
“There is no question that there will be access to users’ correspondence. There is only one question – about the five identifiers that the messenger must report to Roskomnadzor; they will be officially entered into the information dissemination register. That’s the point.”
What else did Roskomnadzor prohibit?
We have collected 10 cases of resource blocking in one video so that you know exactly what not to do.
1) The Russian version of Google was blocked for a redirect from the bookmaker’s website.”
2) Linkedin violated the law on the localization of personal data by storing information about Russian users outside the Russian Federation.
3) Youtube was temporarily blocked for videos entitled “The Ideal Method of Suicide” and “Creation of 4) the Russian Insurgent Army.” After deleting the videos, the video hosting was unblocked.
4) Lurkomorye was blocked without any adequate reason due to a claim for honor and dignity from the Federal Drug Control Service (Federal Drug Control Service).
5) From the article “How to commit suicide correctly,” Absurdopedia was blocked.
6) Wikipedia did not please Roskomnadzor with an article about smoking Cannabis.
7) VKontakte was blocked for public pages with child pornography. At the request of users, the resource was unblocked.
8) The Librusek electronic library was blocked for the “Anarchist Cookbook.”
9) Video hosting Vimeo was blocked for hosting videos of the group ISIS, banned in the Russian Federation.
10) Steam was blacklisted due to information about drug use.
Meanwhile
Telegram has become the most downloaded application in the Russian App Store ranking. After the threat of blocking from June 26, the messenger rose in the list from seventh to first place.
Act 12 (28.06)
On his VKontakte page Durov
(At the end of the post there is a statement by Pavel Durov about religions, and which one he considers himself to be).
RULES OF LIFE OF PAVL DUROV:
1. I am a peace-loving person, I am a vegetarian, and I do not like war.
2. I sold my share of VKontakte, since its presence could prevent me from making the right decisions. But I don’t regret anything - protecting people’s personal data is worth that and much more. Since December 2013, I have no property, but I still have something more important - a clear conscience and ideals that I am ready to defend.
3. The compromise is worse than any of the alternatives.
4. I visited very rich people, I was on large yachts, private jets, villas - and I clearly understood that I didn’t need all this.
5. Universal love is an alarming sign for a person who is accustomed to swimming against the tide.
6. Remember those cases when your opinion was completely contrary to the opinions of others? These are the most valuable moments that you need to cling to with a death grip. The world around us is developing so quickly that generally accepted beliefs are becoming a mockery of common sense before our eyes.
7. An idea only needs 10% of convinced supporters to convert the remaining 90% of society to its side. There may be less than 10% of people convinced of something - 5%, 2%, even a thousandth of a percent of the population. But if their faith in success and dedication to the idea is unshakable, it is impossible to resist them. In extreme cases, change of any scale requires the faith of one person. Yours, for example.
8. Disbelief in the possibility of changing the world is worse than laziness, drunkenness or drug addiction. Because it is precisely this that causes them.
9. A small reminder to adherents of positive thinking. From the phrase “be healthy” it automatically follows that you don’t have to be healthy. The call to “believe in yourself” implies that the reader does not currently do so.
10. Always, at every minute of your life, even when you are absolutely happy, have one attitude towards the people around you: in any case, I will do what I want, with or without you.
11. Communication is overrated. An hour of solitude is more productive than a week of talking.
12. The ability to concentrate for many hours on one lesson is a skill that is becoming increasingly rare in our mobile-online era. But it is precisely this skill that is necessary for an intellectual, creative or spiritual breakthrough. The future belongs to those who develop immunity to technological attention traps and maintain the ability to concentrate for long periods of time.
13. A characteristic feature of our civilization is the love for medicines, which are more dangerous than the disease itself.
14. No one has the right to prohibit deputies of our parliament from making loud statements.
15. The most dangerous poison is information.
16. A bureaucratic structure that is designed to fight something is unlikely to eliminate the root of the problem. It is more likely that it will subtly stimulate what it is supposed to destroy. Only in this way will it be able to expand its influence and funding.
17. Where there is no competition, there is no progress.
18. Simplify.
P.S. Pavel Durov about religions.
