Durov said that Apple and Google do not compromise when it comes to their rules.
American corporations Apple and Google, rather than the governments of the countries put the most pressure on Telegram. This was stated by Pavel Durov, the founder of the messenger, in an interview with journalist Tucker Carlson.
According to Durov, the corporations "make it clear" that if Telegram does not comply with their "recommendations," the messenger may be removed from app stores. Durov emphasized that in this case, “a big chunk of the world’s population will lose access to a valuable tool.”
At the same time, the Telegram founder admitted that it is "hard to disagree" with some of the demands of Apple and Google. He clarified that they are talking about a ban on publishing publicly available content with violence, discrimination or child abuse.
Durov has already made critical remarks about American Big Techs. In particular, in 2022 Telegram had to disable content monetization on iOS devices at Apple's request. The American company sent a letter to the management of the messenger, where it expressed dissatisfaction with the fact that content creators monetize their work without paying Apple a commission of 30%.
Then the Telegram founder criticized Apple and called its demand "another example of how a trillion-dollar monopoly abuses its market dominance at the expense of millions of users."
“I hope that the regulators in the EU, India and elsewhere start taking action before Apple destroys more dreams and crushes more entrepreneurs with a tax that is higher than any government-levied VAT,”
Pavel Durov wrote at the time.
In 2020, Durov criticized Apple and Google for high taxes on sales of digital products for mobile phones.
"Apple and Google impose an insane 30% sales tax on all digital goods sold on every mobile phone in the world. The result - users pay higher prices, start-ups and entire industries get destroyed or never appear. Regulators have been ignoring this absurdity for 10 years,"
Durov wrote on Twitter (current X).
