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Durov urged authorities from different countries to join Telegram's initiatives to combat covid

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Durov urged authorities from different countries to join Telegram's initiatives to combat covid

Pavel Durov, the founder of the Telegram messenger, appealed to the governments of different countries to use the application to disseminate reliable information and alert citizens about the situation with coronavirus infection.

In his official Telegram channel, he wrote that because Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms were blocking messages promoting the theory of the virus leak from the lab.

Durov said that in his 20 years running the platforms, he has noticed that "conspiracy theories are only reinforced every time their content is removed by moderators." "Instead of putting an end to erroneous ideas, censorship often makes it harder to fight them. That's why spreading the truth will always be a more effective strategy than censorship," Durov explained.

Such cases, he said, make combating fake news and misinformation especially difficult. In addition, they could undermine people's trust in the neutrality of social media platforms altogether and jeopardize future efforts to combat disinformation, the messenger founder said.

Durov said Telegram has never blocked messages discussing the lab's leak theory because the app's owners don't believe the messenger's role is "to decide for users what they should believe".

"At the same time, we believed that our users had a right to receive information about the coronavirus from official sources that reflected the scientific consensus. That's why we worked with the governments of 19 countries to help them bring up-to-date information about the pandemic to every Telegram user in their countries," the platform founder stressed.

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Author: Ksenia Gustova

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