Telegram Founder Pavel Durov Speaks Out After Arrest in France
Pavel Durov, the founder of Telegram, has made his first public comments following his recent arrest in France, expressing surprise over the serious allegations raised against him. In a blog post detailing his experience, Durov revealed that he was detained for four days after arriving in Paris due to a lack of responses from Telegram regarding complaints from French authorities.
Charged on August 28 with multiple crimes linked to wrongful activities occurring on the messaging platform, Durov managed to avoid jail time by posting a bail of 55 million euros. He was released under strict conditions, including a mandate to stay within France and report to a police station bi-weekly.
The 39-year-old businessman faces accusations of complicity in facilitating drug trafficking and disseminating sexual images of minors via Telegram. Moreover, French prosecutors allege that Durov failed to provide crucial documents requested during their investigation into illegal activities on the app.
Durov, who holds citizenship in France, Russia, the United Arab Emirates, and St Kitts and Nevis, called his arrest misguided. He emphasized that Telegram has an official representative in the EU who handles such inquiries. According to Durov, if a country faces issues with an internet service, the proper course of action is to pursue legal actions against the service itself, not a personal arrest of its founder.
In defense of Telegram’s operations, Durov dismissed notions of the app being an unregulated "anarchic paradise". He highlighted the platform's ongoing efforts to maintain safety and security for its 950 million users by removing millions of harmful posts and channels daily. Telegram publishes transparency reports and has even established a hotline aimed at assisting French authorities in combating terrorism risks.
Durov acknowledged the challenges faced by Telegram as it strives for a balance between privacy rights and security needs. He expressed readiness to withdraw from markets that do not align with the company's core principles, citing past experiences in Russia and Iran, where the app was banned after refusing to comply with demands from regulators for user surveillance.
He said, "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."
While admitting that Telegram is not perfect and faced challenges that have allowed criminal activities to flourish on the platform, Durov underscored that the app was created with good intentions—to defend the fundamental rights of individuals, especially in places where those rights are endangered.
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