Telegram founder speaks out for the first time after being arrested: We are not here to make money, but to defend people's basic rights
Pavel Durov was informed that he might have to bear personal responsibility for the illegal use of Telegram by others, as the French authorities did not receive a response from Telegram.Author: Lila, BlockBeats
On August 25, Pavel Durov, the founder and CEO of Telegram, was detained in Paris, France, facing multiple charges including fraud, money laundering, and terrorism. On August 29, Pavel Durov was released after paying a bail of 5 million euros but was not allowed to leave France. Complete overview of the incident: Real-time Update | South Korea Investigates Telegram; Crypto-related Business Accounts for About 40% of Telegram's Total Revenue
After nearly a week of silence, Durov responded to the Paris detention incident this morning for the first time on his official personal channel. Here is the full text of his statement:
Thank you all for your support and concern!
Last month, I was interrogated by the police for four days after arriving in Paris. I was told that I might have to take personal responsibility for the illegal use of Telegram by others, as the French authorities had not received a response from Telegram.
This surprised me for the following reasons:
Telegram has an official representative in the EU responsible for receiving and responding to EU requests. Their email address is publicly available, and anyone in the EU can find it by searching "Telegram EU law enforcement contact address" on Google.
The French authorities have various ways to contact me for assistance. As a French citizen, I am a frequent visitor to the French consulate in Dubai. Previously, when they made requests, I personally helped them establish a hotline with Telegram to address terrorism threats in France.
If a country is dissatisfied with an internet service, the usual approach is to file a legal lawsuit against the service itself. Using laws from before the smartphone era to accuse a platform CEO of being responsible for crimes committed by third parties on the platform is a misguided approach. Building technology is already difficult enough. If innovators know they might be held personally liable for the potential misuse of these tools, they will never develop new tools.
Finding the right balance between privacy and security is not easy. You have to coordinate privacy laws with law enforcement requirements, as well as local laws with EU laws. You also need to consider technical limitations. As a platform, you want your processes to remain consistent globally while ensuring that these processes are not abused in countries with weak legal frameworks. We have always been committed to working with regulators to find the right balance. Yes, we stand by our principles: our experience is shaped by the mission of protecting users' safety in authoritarian regimes. But at the same time, we have always been willing to engage in dialogue.
Sometimes we cannot find the right balance between privacy and security with the regulators of a certain country. In these cases, we are prepared to leave that country. In fact, we have done so. When Russia demanded that we hand over "encryption keys" for surveillance, we refused—thus Telegram was banned in Russia. When Iran asked us to block channels of peaceful protesters, we refused—thus Telegram was banned in Iran. We are prepared to leave markets that are incompatible with our principles because we do not do this for profit. We do this to bring goodwill and defend people's fundamental rights, especially where those rights are under threat.
But this does not mean that Telegram is perfect. For example, there is confusion among authorities regarding the channels for sending requests, which is an area we need to improve. However, claims by some media that Telegram is some sort of anarchic paradise are completely untrue. We delete millions of harmful posts and channels every day. We publish daily transparency reports (such as this one or this one). We have also established direct hotlines with NGOs to handle urgent review requests more quickly.
However, we have noticed that some voices believe this is not enough. The rapid increase in Telegram users to 950 million has also brought growing pains, making it easier for criminals to misuse our platform. That is why I will ensure that we continue to improve in this area. We have already started this process internally and will soon share more details about our progress with everyone.
I hope the events of August will make Telegram, and the entire social networking industry, safer and stronger. Thank you again for your concern and support.
