Top countries in terms of Telegram traffic now count Germany, Italy, and Brazil. It has been growing in popularity in the West. The latter, however, can be dangerous, with a March 2020 leak revealing 42 million users account IDs, user names, phone numbers. In response, people turned to VPN servers and proxies, or unofficial versions of the app called “forks”. In early 2018, the government completely banned it for refusing to remove encryption to officials. It is a big hit in authoritarian countries like Iran, where Telegram is the leading social platform with over 50 million users. Telegram currently ranks as the sixth most used global messaging app. It has since expanded globally, driven by its privacy features and political instability from Hong Kong to the US.

It initially took off in East European countries, including Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. Telegram was founded by Russian entrepreneur Pavel Durov in 2013. It now reaches an active monthly user base of over 500 million people worldwide. With time it became a handy content distribution tool for news media via channels and chat groups. Messaging app Telegram was originally created for private communications. It’s time for news orgs to learn to love Telegram

What is the app telegram used for