The reason for the blocking of the US president's Twitter account was the storming of the Capitol on January 6 by Trump's supporters. The head of state was suspected of inciting residents to riots and was threatened with impeachment.
According to RBC, citing data from The Daily Telegraph, in the week of January 6, Telegram in the United States was downloaded about 545 thousand times, which is almost three times more than a week earlier.
“In addition to blocking accounts associated with Trump, the rise in popularity of Telegram could also be affected by a change in the privacy policy of another popular messenger, WhatsApp. On January 8, the administration of the latter announced that the personal data of users of the WhatsApp application will be made available to all families of Facebook applications”, - the newspaper said.
The blocking of Trump's Twitter account has sparked a heated debate about the attack on free speech on social media. The founder of Telegram, Pavel Durov, said that after the change in the WhatsApp privacy policy, users began to flee to Telegram.
Commenting on the removal of the popular Trump network Parler from the App Store and Google Play, Durov said that Apple and Google "represent a much bigger problem for freedom than Twitter". In order not to lose the freedom of access to information, Durov advised Apple users to switch from iOS to the Android system, which allows you to install your own applications freely through apk files, bypassing Apple and Google services. Now Durov's team is working on creating a web version of the application for the Safari browser.
The scandal with the blocking of the Trump account and the accounts of his supporters began after thousands of Trump supporters, dissatisfied with the loss of the presidential election, went to a mass protest and took the Capitol by storm. They had to disperse the crowd with weapons and tear gas. As a result, five people died. The blocking of the accounts of Trumpists in the United States was explained by fears for security and the desire to avoid new political provocations and human casualties. The inauguration of Democrat Joseph Biden, who won the presidential election, is scheduled for January 20.