Telegram Founder Bashes US as a ‘Police State’ Amid Free TON Launch

In a May 7 post, Telegram founder Pavel Durov called the United States a “police state” and discouraged entrepreneurs from moving their businesses to Silicon Valley.

Perhaps exhausted by the legal battles around Telegram’s beleaguered token offering, Durov berated the U.S. in his latest post “7 Reasons Not To Move To The [Silicon] Valley.” In the post, he criticized it both as a place to do business and a place to live. The post was only announced in Durov’s Russian language Telegram channel and was published in Russian.

Telegram was pressured by FBI

The number one reason, in Durov’s opinion, is that the U.S. is a police state. He is basing this conclusion on the fact the U.S. has the highest number of people incarcerated in the world. He also mentioned that in 2016, during its trip to San Francisco, the Telegram team was pressured by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. 

Durov went on to list a number of other factors that, in his opinion, make life in the U.S. unattractive — a poor healthcare system, the lack of cultural life, mediocre school education, high taxes, high software development costs and the lackluster market perspective for the twenty-first century.

His final word of advice to entrepreneurs from Eastern Europe was to examine other alternatives. According to Durov:

“Today, India, not the U.S. presents the largest open internet-market in the world”.

This diatribe came on the same day as the Free TON Community launched its blockchain. Allegedly, neither Telegram nor Durov are involved in the project. It also came weeks after the announcement that Russia may lift its three-year Telegram ban.