A message is being shared on social media with the claim that Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has purchased the Telegram app. Few social media users have even mentioned the purchase price of $600 million in their posts.
A Facebook user shared the message with a caption that reads, “Bill Gates bought Telegram. Watch for the censorship.”
Here’s the link to the above post.
Check similar posts here, here, and here.
FACT CHECK
NewsMobile fact-checked the post and found it to be fake.
We checked the social media accounts of Pavel Durov (the founder and CEO of Telegram) and found NO mention of any purchase or Bill Gates. We also checked the Twitter account of Telegram, and could not find any such news.
We then checked Telegram’s website. Telegram did not announce the supposed purchase by Bill Gates either on its blogs or in any of its press releases.
As explained on the website’s Frequently Asked Questions here, Telegram is “financially and ideologically” supported by the app’s founder Pavel Durov, while his brother Nikolai Durov provides the “technological input.”
“We are not going to sell the company like the founders of Whatsapp,” Pavel Durov also wrote in a post 3 months ago.
Also according to some reports, Bill Gates “has no financial relationship with Telegram.”
We also checked Bill Gates’ social media handles but could not find any post to support this viral claim.
Hence, from the above information, we can say that Bill Gates did NOT purchase Telegram and the viral claim is fake.
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