“We’ve been fed a lie.”: Pavel Durov on the total control of the internet

Instead of celebrating his birthday this year, Telegram founder Pavel Durov warned that today’s generation has little time left to save a free internet, which he described as “the ultimate tool of control.”

In response to birthday messages, he stressed that our generation has little time left to save the free internet, “built for us by our fathers.” Pavel Durov pointed to dystopian measures introduced by countries once considered free: digital IDs in the UK, online age checks in Australia, and mass scanning of private messages in the EU. He noted that Germany prosecutes those who criticize officials online, the UK imprisons thousands over tweets, and in France, tech leaders face criminal charges for trying to “defend freedom and privacy.”

“A dark, dystopian world is approaching fast — while we’re asleep. Our generation risks going down in history as the last one that had freedoms — and allowed them to be taken away,” Durov wrote.

Later, joining a discussion on X, Durov supported the idea that the term “hate speech” was deliberately invented to justify censorship. He added that a growing number of similar labels are being used to restrict free expression.

Same as ‘misinformation’, ‘disinformation’ and all those other code words for CENSORSHIP used to silence us and take away our rights. Never forget how they fought ‘conspiracy theories’ during Covid, most of which turned out to be true.

According to Durov, under the pretext of fighting “harmful content” and “fakes,” people are gradually being stripped of their right to speak freely and access information.

The debate comes as the European Union prepares to revisit the Chat Control bill in mid-October. The proposal would require all messaging services to hand over user data to local authorities and scan private conversations using AI. Lawmakers argue the measure is aimed at protecting minors and combating illegal online content. Opponents, however, warn that it could lead to sweeping violations of digital privacy.