Secure messaging company Telegram said its app was used by 200 million people in the past 30 days, a milestone it described as “an insane number by any standards”.

In a blog post, the company put its popularity down to the fact that it doesn’t have shareholders or advertisers to report to and that it doesn’t do deals with marketers, data miners or government agencies.

The post comes around the same time as the company is contesting a fine imposed on it by Russia for not handing over encryption keys that would allow the government to access user correspondence.

And rival Facebook is on the recieving end of criticism for its data practices.

“We operate this way because we don’t regard Telegram as an organisation or an app. For us, Telegram is an idea; it is the idea that everyone on this planet has a right to be free,” the post said.

Telegram recently raised $850 million in the pre-sale stage of an initial coin offering to develop and maintain its messaging apps, and also to work on its blockchain technology.