Durov revisits Zuckerberg’s early comments on user trust and data

Telegram founder Pavel Durov has resurfaced an old remark by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, linking it to the current scale of WhatsApp’s user base.

Durov referenced a private exchange from 2004 in which Zuckerberg described how he had obtained emails, addresses, and photos from thousands of Facebook users.

In the messages, Zuckerberg referred to those users as “dumb f*cks”, a direct quote, noting that they had voluntarily shared their data because they trusted him.

According to Durov, only one thing has changed since then: scale. What once involved a few thousand users has now grown to billions. He argued that the owner of WhatsApp is now “privately laughing not at 4 thousand, but at 4 billion” users.

“Today, WhatsApp's owner is privately laughing not at 4 thousand, but at 4 billion ‘dumb f*cks’ who trust his claims (like WhatsApp's encryption). 📈 🤡 🔐,” Durov wrote.

The resurfaced quote has long been cited as an illustration of Facebook’s early attitude toward user privacy and trust. In Durov’s view, it remains relevant today — but now on a global scale.

The remark originally appeared in a private conversation between Zuckerberg and a friend at a time when Facebook was still gaining traction within university campuses. When the exchange became public years later, it sparked widespread backlash. Zuckerberg later apologized, saying he had changed and reconsidered his views since then.