- Telegram CEO, Pavel Durov, has spoken out for the first time since his arrest in France last month saying it’s his “personal goal” to reduce criminal activity on his platform.
- Durov said he was surprised by his arrest, stating that he and Telegram were both easily contactable and willing to cooperate with French authorities.
- The Telegram CEO claims French authorities told him he may be held personally responsible for crimes committed by users of his platform, an approach he described as “misguided”.
Telegram CEO Pavel Durov has spoken out publicly for the first time since his arrest by French authorities on August 25. In his statement, posted to Telegram on Friday morning, Durov claimed that it’s a “personal goal” of his to reduce criminal activity on the platform, while at the same time insisting criminal activity isn’t that big of a deal on the platform.
Durov also took aim at French authorities for arresting him, saying it was surprising and unnecessary as he’s easily accessible and willing to cooperate with authorities in France and elsewhere.
The Telegram CEO added that during his time in custody, the French authorities said he could be held personally responsible for crimes committed by the users of his platform, a position he says is unfeasible since it’ll place enormous legal risk on software developers and stifle innovation.
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Durov Claims He’s Committed to Cleaning Up Telegram
In his statement, Durov said he is committed to cracking down on criminal activity on Telegram, which he says has increased due to the platform’s rapid growth:
Telegram’s abrupt increase in user count 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 we significantly improve things in this regard.
Pavel Durov, Telegram CEOWhile Durov says he’s committed to cleaning up his platform, he also downplayed the magnitude of the problem, suggesting it’s largely a media beat-up:
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.
Pavel Durov, Telegram CEOArrest Was Surprising, Says Durov
Durov said he was surprised by his arrest, insisting both he and his company are easy to reach and happy to cooperate with authorities. However, he also said that the French authorities claimed he was arrested largely because their inquiries to Telegram had gone unanswered:
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.
Pavel Durov, Telegram CEODurov suggests this unresponsiveness may have been because they had not used the correct email address when contacting Telegram, saying:
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, Telegram CEODurov, who is a French citizen, also said he could’ve been easily contacted via the French consulate in Dubai, which he claims to visit frequently.
French Authorities’ Approach “Misguided”
Durov took aim at the approach of the French authorities, criticising the idea of going after the CEO of a social media platform personally for crimes committed by its users:
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.
Pavel Durov, Telegram CEORelated: Telegram Faces Further Scrutiny with Criminal Probe by India’s Cybercrime Unit
Durov added that he is prepared to have Telegram banned in markets where the regulatory environment clashes with his goals, citing previous cases where he’s stopped offering Telegram in Russia and Iran:
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.
Pavel Durov, Telegram CEO“We are prepared to leave markets that aren’t compatible with our principles, because we are not doing this for money,” he explained.
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