Fake Edward Snowden Account Removed From Telegram After Whistleblower's Outburst
08:35 GMT 19.10.2021 (Updated: 08:57 GMT 19.10.2021)
© AFP 2023 / JONATHAN NACKSTRAND
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Snowden previously reposted a comment saying that he had become the target of a scam network trying to promote a questionable cryptocurrency.
A Telegram account impersonating American whistleblower Edward Snowden has been purged from the app, CEO Pavel Durov said.
Snowden posted his complaints on Twitter, criticising Telegram for not taking down the fake account, saying that the company refused to even respond. However, the Telegram founder himself answered him, saying that all he had to do was to let the messenger app know.
This channel is about a week old and never had a "verified" mark. It's unlikely the team was even aware about this channel. All you had to do was to let @telegram know about it. It is now marked as "fake" and removed from search results, just like other similar channels.
— Pavel Durov (@durov) October 18, 2021
Durov also noted that he completely understood Snowden's emotional reaction.
"Ed had the right to be emotional. I know how it feels to see fake accounts with your name scamming people. For 3 years @facebook and @instagram have been ignoring complaints and allowing ad campaigns that promote scam projects using my name and image. It's annoying", he tweeted.
Snowden thanked Durov and the Telegram team for their response.
Thank you. Appreciate the response.
— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) October 18, 2021
