Mikhail Petrov, former chief engineer for Vkontakte (VK.com), has written a post about what has been going on in Russia’s leading social network since the departure of its founder Pavel Durov.
He stated that Russian intelligence agencies and cellular operators now have full access to users’ personal data. According to Petrov, however, it is not surveillance that’s going to kill Vkontakte, but the fact that they’ve started charging for music.
“If you’re in a position to influence the political future of Russia, it’s not just FSB agents reading your mail, but low-level employees of [cellular] operators hoping to score points with state agencies. Yes, Putin is going to be everything to us for the next several years of his life! But you even have to pay for music on Vkontakte now! That’s the rope it’s going to hang itself with,” Petrov wrote.
Petrov added in the commentaries that, in the last half year, the company has not bought the servers, switches or channels they need for growth. Thus the social network may fail to handle its load and go down next fall. “The present management is determined to lower costs at any price, or else they will be replaced,” Petrov writes.
However, he says, since much of the content – music and video – will be deleted from the site and replaced with links to a store, it may not become overloaded.
VK’s director of client relations Alexander Kruglov did not deny Petrov’s statements about economizing on equipment, but had calming words for users. “I don’t think anyone is interested in the fall of VKontakte or is cutting reasonable expenses on equipment for that reason,” Russian publication TJournal reported him as saying.
New social network to be launched “secretly and quickly”
Petrov also unveiled plans to launch a new social network “secretly and quickly.” “I’m asking you to put up with this shit until autumn, and everything will be okay. I’m not talking about the government, I’m talking about a new social network without the FSB and government idiots,” he said.
The new project won’t allow even the service’s programmers to read users’ messages, it won’t leave traces of users’ allocated or static IP addresses, and it won’t contain “links” to users’ files in the cloud, Petrov said. The project will have a system of distributed data center nodes, which will prevent any single country from having a strong influence on its operations.
According to Petrov, the project’s management will not oversee the social network’s content, and the company will be set up in such a way that its stock cannot be bought or sold. “It will be a ‘public’ organization like Wikipedia,” Petrov added. “You’re sure to like its functionality! Pavel and Nikolai [Durov] won’t fool around.”
Petrov stated that he is not yet an employee of the new company, but has taken on a “very minor” role. “I am just an adviser. But when there is a social network and many servers, I will join in.” He expects the social network to be launched in November, and that is when they will talk about its functionality.
Pavel Durov stated in a comment in TJournal that he has not started working on a new social network, and he denied Petrov’s claims. “Mikhail has no relationship with Nikolai’s and my team. I do not know where he is getting the inspiration and information for his entries, but they are inaccurate in their details and as a whole. We have not begun active work on new projects, since there are still serious tasks on the agenda for Telegram.”
Petrov left Vkontakte in April of this year, soon after Durov was dismissed as CEO by the new shareholders. “I decided not to get in the way of the new team’s work,” he stated then. “I don’t want to be a fifth wheel. I wish VK well.”
Vkontakte’s press service did not answer EWDN’s questions.
