Telegram founder says we should ‘stay away’ from WhatsApp

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The founder of the breakout messaging app, Telegram, has just taken shots at WhatsApp, the most popular messaging app in the world. He urged people to “stay away” from the app and that it “will never be secure.”

Telegram founder Pavel Durov recently took to Telegram to share his thoughts on WhatsApp (h/t, Independent). In his messages, Durov warned WhatsApp users that hackers could have access to their entire phones.

Durov cited a recent security issue that WhatsApp brought to light last month. The security flaw allowed hackers to access a user’s phone with a malicious video.

“Every year we learn about some issue in WhatsApp that puts everything on their users’ devices at risk… It doesn’t matter if you are the richest person on Earth – if you have WhatsApp installed on your phone, all your data from every app on your device is accessible,” Durov said in his messages.

But Durov isn’t convinced that WhatsApp’s flaws are random. He calls the app’s security flaws “planted backdoors” for law enforcement, governments, and anyone who wants to exploit the app and users.

Durov’s Telegram app has exploded in popularity over the last few years. The app is known for its privacy, and it has garnered over 700 million active daily users.

But that’s still a fraction of the popularity of its competition. WhatsApp has a staggering 2 billion-plus users around the world.

However, Durov says this is not an attempt to draw users to Telegram. “You can use any messaging app you like, but do stay away from WhatsApp – it has now been a surveillance tool for 13 years.”

Meta, who owns WhatsApp, told The Independent that Durov’s statements are “complete rubbish.”

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