Telegram CEO Pavel Durov has addressed his recent arrest in France for the first time, releasing a detailed statement on his Telegram channel yesterday.
The Russian-born billionaire was detained at Le Bourget airport on August 24, around 8 PM, as he arrived in Paris at the invitation of President Emmanuel Macron.
Durov’s arrest emanated from accusations that he may be held responsible for illegal activities conducted by users on Telegram, a messaging app that now has 950 million users worldwide.
In his statement, Pavel Durov mentioned that he was surprised about the accusations, particularly given that Telegram has an official compliance representative in the European Union (EU) to address such issues. He noted that French authorities had multiple ways to reach him but chose not to utilize those channels.
“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,” Durov wrote.
He continued by explaining that the EU representative’s contact information has always been publicly available: “Telegram has an official representative in the EU that accepts and replies to EU requests. Its email address has been publicly available for anyone in the EU who googles ‘Telegram EU address for law enforcement.’”
Pavel Durov further noted that as a French citizen, he had previously engaged with French authorities and even helped set up a hotline with Telegram to address terrorism-related issues.
The Telegram CEO condemned the French authorities’ decision to hold him personally responsible for illegal activities conducted by users on his platform, describing it as a “misguided approach.”
“If a country is unhappy with an internet service, the established practice is to start a legal action 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,” Durov stated.
Pavel Durov also highlighted the challenges of balancing user privacy with law enforcement requirements, adding that Telegram has been committed to engaging with regulators globally to find the right equilibrium. However, he acknowledged that this is not always possible, particularly in countries with weak rule of law.
“Establishing the right balance between privacy and security is not easy. You have to reconcile privacy laws with law enforcement requirements, and local laws with EU laws. You have to take into account technological limitations,” he said. Durov reiterated that while Telegram is committed to protecting users’ rights, it is also open to dialogue with regulators.
Contrary to media reports that have portrayed Telegram as a platform for unchecked illegal activities, Durov clarified that the company takes meaningful steps to moderate harmful content.
“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. However, he conceded that the platform’s rapid growth to 950 million users had brought “growing pains,” making it easier for criminals to exploit it.
Pavel Durov pledged to enhance Telegram’s content moderation efforts, stating: “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.”
Since his arrest, Durov has been placed under judicial supervision in France. He faces charges related to poor content moderation on Telegram, including accusations of terrorism and drug trafficking. Under the court’s orders, Durov is banned from leaving French territory and must report to the police twice a week.
Despite these legal challenges, Durovsays: “I hope that the events of August will result in making Telegram — and the social networking industry as a whole — safer and stronger. Thanks again for your love and memes,” he concluded.
In his statement, Durov also revealed that Telegram’s user base has now reached 950 million for the first time, a commendable increase from the previous official figure of 800 million. This points to the app’s growing influence despite the controversies surrounding its content moderation policies.
Full Statement:
“❤️ Thanks everyone for your support and love!
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:
- Telegram has an official representative in the EU that accepts and replies to EU requests. Its email address has been publicly available for anyone in the EU who googles “Telegram EU address for law enforcement”.
- The French authorities had numerous ways to reach me to request 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.
- If a country is unhappy with an internet service, the established practice is to start a legal action 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.
Establishing the right balance between privacy and security is not easy. You have to reconcile privacy laws with law enforcement requirements, and local laws with EU laws. You have to take into account technological limitations. 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.
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. We’ve done it many times. 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.
All of that does not mean Telegram is perfect. Even the fact that authorities could be confused by where to send requests is something that we should improve. 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 (like this or this ). We have direct hotlines with NGOs to process urgent moderation requests faster.
However, we hear voices saying that it’s not enough. 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. We’ve already started that process internally, and I will share more details on our progress with you very soon.
I hope that the events of August will result in making Telegram — and the social networking industry as a whole — safer and stronger. Thanks again for your love and memes 🙏.”
