Telegram CEO Pavel Durov on Thursday made his first public statement since his arrest by French authorities last month.
In a lengthy message posted on his Telegram channel, Durov said his arrest came as a surprise to him.
“Last month, I was interrogated by the police for 4 days after arriving in Paris. I was told that I could be personally responsible for the illegal use of Telegram by other people, since the French authorities did not receive a response from Telegram,” Durov wrote.
But authorities, Durov said, could have contacted Telegram for help if they had wanted.
“Telegram has an official representative in the EU who accepts and responds to EU requests,” he wrote, adding that he had also helped French authorities “establish a hotline with Telegram to address the terrorist threat in France.”
I am still trying to understand what happened in France. But we hear the concerns. I have made it my personal goal to prevent abusers of the Telegram platform from interfering with the future of our more than 950 million users.
My full article below. https://t.co/cDvRSodjst
— Pavel Durov (@durov) September 5, 2024
Durov was arrested by French police on August 24 after arriving in Paris on his private jet.
The Russian-born entrepreneur was indicted a few days later, on August 28. Durov was accused of being an accomplice in the distribution of child pornography and drug trafficking on Telegram.
Durov, who obtained French citizenship in 2021, has since been released from detention but is not allowed to leave France.
“If a country is not satisfied with an Internet service, the established practice is to take legal action against the service itself,” Durov wrote on Thursday.
“Using pre-smartphone laws to charge a CEO with crimes committed by third parties on the platform he manages is a misguided approach. Building technology is hard enough.”
French President Emmanuel Macron said on August 26 that Durov’s arrest was ““This is in no way a political decision.”
I saw false information regarding France following the arrest of Pavel Durov.
France is deeply attached to freedom of expression and communication, to innovation and to the spirit of enterprise. It will remain so.
In a state of law,…
— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) August 26, 2024
“The arrest of the Telegram president on French territory took place as part of an ongoing judicial investigation. This is in no way a political decision. It is up to the judges to decide,” Macron wrote in an X-rated post.
Telegram, Durov said, recognizes the challenge of balancing privacy and security and has “worked with regulators to find the right balance.”
“Sometimes we cannot agree with a country’s regulator on the right balance between privacy and security. In those cases, we are prepared to leave that country,” he wrote, adding that Telegram had been banned in Russia and Iran when those countries refused to comply with local authorities.
Telegram is by no means perfect, but it is certainly not an “anarchic paradise,” Durov said on his channel.
“The sudden increase in Telegram users to 950 million caused growing pains that made it easier for criminals to abuse our platform. That’s why I made it my personal goal to ensure that we significantly improve things in this regard,” he wrote in his post, adding that more details would be shared soon.
“Thanks again for your love and memes,” Durov added.
Telegram representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent outside of normal business hours.
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