Telegram founder Durov issues first statement after arrest in France
Photo: Telegram founder Pavel Durov (instagram.com_durov)
In his first public statement following his arrest, Telegram founder Pavel Durov expressed surprise at the charges levied against him and pledged to improve security and reduce abuse on the messaging platform, according to Pavel Durov's Telegram channel.
He expressed astonishment at the accusations from French authorities for several reasons.
First, Durov noted that Telegram has an official representative in the European Union who handles and responds to EU regulatory requests. He added that his email address is publicly available to anyone in the EU.
Second, he remarked that French authorities had numerous ways to contact him for assistance.
"As a French citizen, I was a frequent guest at the French consulate in Dubai. A while ago, when asked, I personally helped them establish a hotline with Telegram to deal with the threat of terrorism in France," Durov stated.
Third, the founder of the messaging service pointed out that “If a country is unhappy with an internet service, the established practice is to start a legal action against the service itself.” Durov said “Using laws from the pre-smartphone era to charge a CEO with crimes committed by third parties on the platform he manages is a misguided approach.”
He acknowledged the difficulty of striking the right balance between privacy and security and added that technological limitations must be considered.
“As a platform, you want your processes to be consistent globally, while also ensuring they are not abused in countries with weak rule of law. We’ve been committed to engaging with regulators to find the right balance. Yes, we stand by our principles: our experience is shaped by our mission to protect our users in authoritarian regimes. But we’ve always been open to dialogue,” Durov wrote.
He also mentioned that “Sometimes we can’t agree with a country’s regulator on the right balance between privacy and security. In those cases, we are ready to leave that country.”
“When Russia demanded we hand over “encryption keys” to enable surveillance, we refused — and Telegram got banned in Russia. When Iran demanded we block channels of peaceful protesters, we refused — and Telegram got banned in Iran. We are prepared to leave markets that aren’t compatible with our principles, because we are not doing this for money. We are driven by the intention to bring good and defend the basic rights of people, particularly in places where these rights are violated,” Durov stated.
He dismissed claims that “Telegram is some sort of anarchic paradise” and assured that the platform “takes down millions of harmful posts and channels every day” and “has direct hotlines with NGOs to process urgent moderation requests faster.”
"Telegram’s abrupt increase in user count to 950M caused growing pains that made it easier for criminals to abuse our platform. That’s why I made it my personal goal to ensure we significantly improve things in this regard. I hope that the events of August will result in making Telegram — and the social networking industry as a whole — safer and stronger," Durov stated.
Pavel Durov’s arrest in France
Telegram’s founder was detained on August 24 at Le Bourget Airport near Paris.
He was subsequently charged with aiding terrorism, drug trafficking, fraud, money laundering, selling stolen goods, and sexual crimes against children, as well as failing to moderate the service and cooperate with investigations.
Telegram has denied these accusations and emphasized that the company operates within the legal framework of the EU.
On August 29, Durov was released on a €5 million bail. He has been prohibited from leaving France until the investigation is complete.
For more information on Durov’s arrest in France and what lies ahead for Telegram, read RBC-Ukraine’s report.
