Telegram CEO and founder Pavel Durov has finally broken his silence following his “surprising” arrest in France at the end of August.
The Russian-born social media boss first thanked his followers for their “support and love,” then proceeded to outline some of the timeline of events regarding his arrest.
He made this statement on his own personal Telegram channel.
Durov outlined that his arrest surprised him for several reasons.
First, he stated that Telegram has an “official representative in the EU” who is responsible for accepting and replying to EU requests; adding that French authorities said they arrested the CEO because they were not receiving responses from Durov’s company.
“The French authorities had numerous ways to reach me to request assistance,” Durov said, countering the allegations of lack of responses from Telegram by police.
“I personally helped them establish a hotline with Telegram to deal with the threat of terrorism in France,” the social media boss added, signaling a relationship with them in the past.
Durov noted he was also surprised by his arrest considering “the established practice is to start a legal action against the service itself” if “a country is unhappy with an internet service.”
“Building technology is hard enough as it is,” Durov went on. “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.”
“… 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,” Durov stated, reiterating his encompassing view on the stunning story.
The founder ended his statement by again thanking his supporters for their “love” and “memes.”
Resist the Mainstream has extensively reported on the ongoing Durov saga.
French authorities leveled serious charges against the dual UAE-French citizen, including drug offenses and child s*xual exploitation offenses. However, the timing of Durov’s detention has raised suspicions the most.
It follows closely on the heels of a conference sponsored by the Atlantic Council’s DFR Lab, which criticized Telegram’s refusal to censor information related to the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
Durov also reportedly told French authorities he had traveled to Paris at French President Emmanuel Macron’s invitation for dinner, which suggests a potential setup orchestrated at the highest levels of government if true.
Macron, however, has asserted the arrest was not politically motivated.
Edward Snowden and Elon Musk both condemned the action by French authorities.
The arrest of Pavel Durov signals a potential turning point in the ongoing struggle between tech companies and government control.
As this debate continues to unfold, it will undoubtedly have far-reaching implications for online privacy, freedom of speech and the future of encrypted communication platforms.
Telegram, boasting nearly one billion active users, has gained popularity for its privacy-focused approach.
