Pavel Durov’s first statement after Paris detention: responding to French authorities’ claims
The founder of the Telegram messenger, Pavel Durov, made his first statement on Thursday, September 5, following his detention at Le Bourget airport in Paris, reports a Kazinform News Agency correspondent.
He described the claims made by French authorities against him as "surprising." According to Durov, he was interrogated for four days.
“Last month I got interviewed by police for 4 days after arriving in Paris. I was told I may be personally responsible for other people’s illegal use of Telegram, because the French authorities didn’t receive responses from Telegram. This was surprising for several reasons.”
Durov emphasized that Telegram has an official representative in the European Union (EU) who responds to inquiries, and that French authorities had “many ways” to contact the messenger’s creator “and request assistance.”
He also mentioned that, as a citizen of France, he frequently visited the country’s 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.”
He also described the accusations against him, as the CEO of Telegram, for crimes committed by others on the platform as baseless. In his opinion, if a country is dissatisfied with an internet service, it should file a lawsuit against the service itself.
“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. Building technology is hard enough as it is. No innovator will ever build new tools if they know they can be personally held responsible for potential abuse of those tools.”
The founder of Telegram pointed out that finding the right balance between privacy and security is not easy, but his messenger strives to work with regulators to achieve this balance.
According to him, the service adheres to the principles of protecting users in authoritarian regimes, but its management is always open to dialogue. If an agreement cannot be reached, the company leaves the country, as it did in Russia and Iran.
However, Durov emphasized that this doesn’t mean Telegram is perfect. For example, even if governments are confused about where to send requests, this is something that should be improved. But claims that Telegram is some kind of anarchic haven are absolutely untrue, stated the founder of the messenger.
“But the claims in some media that Telegram is some sort of anarchic paradise are absolutely untrue. We take down millions of harmful posts and channels every day. We publish daily transparency reports. We have direct hotlines with NGOs to process urgent moderation requests faster.”
Durov explained that the sharp increase in Telegram users to 950 million has caused problems that made it easier for malicious actors to abuse the platform. However, the businessman assured that he is committed to improving the situation in this regard.
“That’s why I made it my personal goal to ensure we significantly improve things in this regard. We’ve already started that process internally, and I will share more details on our progress with you very soon.”
Durov also thanked Telegram users for their support, “for the love and memes.”
Earlier, it was reported that a court prohibited Pavel Durov from leaving France for six months. He was detained at a Paris airport on the evening of August 24, spent four days in custody, and appeared in court. The businessman is suspected of involvement in offenses under 12 different charges. It is believed that Telegram was used to commit these crimes.
