News linked to both this project and an event.
Telegram founder and CEO Pavel Durov (@durov) revealed in a post that the Russian government has designated him as a "terrorist" because he refused to comply with Russian demands to implement mass surveillance and content censorship on Telegram. Under relevant Russian laws, Durov is prohibited from "publishing any information on the internet." Durov responded to this by stating: "Russian officials obviously fail to understand who can actually kick whom off the internet."
据 Cointelegraph 报道，澳大利亚互联网监管机构对 Telegram 提起法律诉讼，指控其未能移除支持恐怖主义的内容。
Russian State Duma Committee on Information Policy Deputy Chairman Sventsov subsequently suggested that Russian citizens suspend all financial operations within the Telegram ecosystem, including paid subscriptions and purchasing TON/Gram tokens, and wait for official statements from Roskomnadzor and FSB before making further decisions.
According to Cointelegraph, Telegram founder Pavel Durov was questioned by French investigators for more than six hours due to an ongoing criminal investigation. His lawyer stated that authorities do not yet possess evidence supporting the relevant charges.
: The US Department of Justice announced the seizure of an account that provided backend infrastructure for a subsidiary of Cambodia's Huione Group. Prosecutors stated that the account helped operate the Telegram marketplace Huione Guarantee, which matched stolen data, money laundering services, and tools for Southeast Asian scam operations.Additionally, on the same day, FinCEN took action to extend the existing Huione ban to its successor entity, H-Pay Service PLC, to prevent the group from circumventing US restrictions. According to court documents, the custody service operated by the account also assisted criminals, including money launderers, in cryptocurrency transactions. The case is currently being jointly investigated by the FBI's San Francisco office and IRS Criminal Investigation. (decrypt)
: Prediction market Polymarket is facing increased pressure from regulatory and sanctions compliance. It is reported that the platform is pushing traders to undergo identity verification (KYC) to mitigate potential legal and compliance risks.Although Polymarket's betting platform rules do not permit such activities in certain regions, some users have still been participating in market trading through automated trading bots and other methods, forming gray usage pathways in areas such as Russia. Some developers have even utilized tools like Telegram to organize trading traffic and expand their user base. As the platform scales and regulatory scrutiny intensifies, Polymarket is being forced to seek a balance between the decentralized prediction market model and compliance requirements to address potential sanctions and legal risks. (The Information)
Odaily reports, Singapore police have filed six charges of fraud against Zhu Juntao, the former CEO of the defunct crypto lending platform Hodlnaut. The charges allege that during the TerraUSD collapse in 2022, he instructed employees to issue false statements, misleading users to believe that Hodlnaut had no direct exposure to TerraUSD and had not suffered any losses from the incident. According to the prosecutor, the false information was published on Hodlnaut's Telegram channel, customer emails, and Zhu's own X (formerly Twitter) account. Under Singapore law, if convicted, Zhu faces a maximum of up to 20 years in prison, a fine, or both for each charge. (CoinDesk)
Odaily News Telegram founder Pavel Durov posted on X, stating that the "age verification app" proposed by the EU has design flaws and was compromised in just a few minutes. The reason lies in the fundamental security issues of its architecture that trusts user devices. The solution is positioned as "privacy-friendly," but it can actually be easily cracked. Its development path is summarized as follows: first, launch a system that appears to protect privacy but has vulnerabilities; after being compromised, use "fixes" as a reason to weaken privacy protection, eventually evolving into a surveillance tool in the name of privacy. Such "accidental vulnerability incidents" may be used to expand regulation, and the public is urged to stay vigilant.
According to DL News, several “revenge intermediaries” in South Korea that accept cryptocurrency as payment have recently remained highly active. These organizations receive orders via Telegram and offer services including intimidation, assault, and even murder disguised as accidents. They require clients to pay a 50% deposit in USDT and promise to send footage of the operation—recorded using body-worn cameras—via Telegram. Although the alleged ringleader was arrested on April 3, related online advertisements continued to appear as recently as April 13. This year, South Korean police have launched investigations into more than 50 such cases and arrested approximately 30 individuals; all cases were confirmed to involve cryptocurrency payments.