[paganel]

At least that partially confirms my long-held suspicion that Skype's acquisition by MS was also made for "national interests", only that they (the US Administration of that time + MS itself) used to cover it up better. The same goes for FB's acquisition of WhatsApp.

And people were laughing at Putin in 2012-2013 when he was saying in an interview that the Internet was CIA-controlled, not to mention the derogatory Western press headlines of when Putin's cronies took over control over VKontakte the same way as the US military-industrial complex is taking over control over the parts of TikTok they care about right now.

[jacobush]

MS got gov money to buy Skype, it’s sort of an open secret if you follow the money. The web wasn’t as woke then though and didn’t connect the dots.

[pulse7]

I guess that Russia has taken control over Telegram - because it is not banned by them anymore...