A social network privately run by a billionaire free speech advocate, backed by politicians on a tight budget, millions of followers, and very flexible content standards.
(You can also read: The warning left by the fall of Nequi and Davipplata)
Sound familiar? This is the direction Twitter has taken under its command. Elon Muskbut it’s also the current iteration of Telegram, a messaging and outreach app that is relatively unknown in the United States but is more than twice as big as Twitter, has nearly 700 million active users, and is staffed with even fewer.
While Musk seeks to turn Twitter into a lawless haven by removing Covid-19 misinformation rules and reinstating thousands of previously banned accounts, some are comparing the platform to 4chan, the chaotic forum where pornography and memes proliferate.
But TelegramIt offers a more realistic format, becoming a streaming service similar to Twitter.
Its continued growth points to a future that critics of Musk (myself included) will have trouble swallowing: Even as Twitter has dried up in terms of cash, staff, and celebrity users, it can continue to thrive with the effectiveness it provides.
Telegram was founded as a messaging app by Pavel Durov, a Russian-born billionaire whose strong views on freedom of expression are reflected in the app’s sparse code of conduct.
Twitter has 16 content rules, while Telegram only has three. Musk’s latest moves suggest that with a looser approach to the beginning, they will scale Twitter’s policies as much as Telegram’s.
Bloomberg
Source: Exame
