According to Odaily, Telegram founder Pavel Durov revealed in a video shared by KOL Mario Nawfal on X that he has faced significant attention from the FBI and other security agencies during his visits to the United States. Durov mentioned that during his last visit, he was accompanied by a Telegram engineer who was approached by cybersecurity officials or agents attempting to secretly hire him. These officials were keen to learn about the open-source libraries integrated into the Telegram application and tried to persuade the engineer to use certain open-source tools as backdoors.
Durov also shared his personal experiences of similar pressures in the US. He stated that every time he visits the country, he is met by two FBI agents at the airport who question him. Durov believes that these interactions are part of an effort by the authorities to establish a relationship that would allow them to better control Telegram.