Telegram CEO Speaks for First Time Since Arrest in France

Telegram CEO Pavel Durov has vowed to step up censorship of criminal content, but is also ready to leave countries that are not legally friendly.

In the early hours of September 6, Telegram CEO Pavel Durov posted a lengthy message on his personal Telegram channel. This is Mr. Durov's first public statement since he was arrested in France in late August on charges of aiding the "flourishing" of criminal activity on the messaging app.

As previously reported, Mr. Durov was arrested by French authorities after landing at the private Le Bourget airport in Paris on August 25. The CEO was then accused of condoning criminal activity, buying and selling illegal drugs, and spreading obscene content through Telegram without the necessary censorship measures. Mr. Durov was later released on bail of $5 million, but must remain in France pending trial.

The case has attracted great attention from the international community, especially the technology industry, because it is directly related to freedom of speech and the responsibility of censorship of social networks. The French side asserted that the arrest was not politically motivated despite Mr. Durov having Russian, French and UAE citizenship, while the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs has affirmed that it is ready to intervene to protect the interests of their citizens.

Returning to Pavel Durov's latest post, he admitted that he was detained by French police for 4 days to question him about his responsibility for censoring content on Telegram, on the grounds that the company had not previously responded to the authorities' requests. The CEO was surprised because, according to him, the messaging app has always maintained a line of communication with the authorities of European Union (EU) countries in particular and France in general through the country's embassy in Dubai.

Mr. Durov then said that France was wrong to hold it responsible for the criminal actions of others, which he said would hinder similar technological advances in the future.

As a social network, Telegram wants users around the world to have full access to their service without any restrictions, while ensuring that it is not exploited in countries with lax laws. Telegram must balance the laws of each country, EU laws and government requirements, but at the same time maintain the privacy of users.

If it cannot satisfy the authorities' demands, Mr. Durov said Telegram is ready to leave that country, something the social network has done in Russia and Iran.

On the other hand, the CEO admitted that Telegram “is not perfect”. During the recent explosion in the number of users, bringing the number of Telegram accounts to 950 million, the social network was unable to manage all the tricks of criminals, despite the fact that the censorship team had millions of malicious posts every day. Therefore, Mr. Durov announced that he would step up content censorship in the coming time, making it a “personal goal” and would soon provide updates on the changes that will be applied.

According to the account X @tier10k, Telegram has updated its policy, adding instructions for users to report malicious content. The commitment to “not censor private messages between users” was moved to another section.

The price of the TON token, the cryptocurrency of the TON blockchain associated with Telegram, has seriously declined since Mr. Pavel Durov was arrested by France and has not shown any clear signs of recovery.