Telegram boss breaks silence over his arrest in France

Posted on by Vaseline

Telegram CEO and founder Pavel Durov has finally broken his silence following his “surprise” arrest in France in late August.

The Russian-born social media boss first thanked his followers for their “support and love,” before laying out a timeline of events surrounding his arrest.

He made this statement on his own personal Telegram channel.

Durov said 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 responding to EU requests. He added that French authorities said they arrested the CEO because they did not receive any responses from Durov’s company.

“The French authorities had numerous ways to reach me and ask for help,” Durov said, denying allegations of lack of police response on Telegram.

“I personally helped them set up a hotline with Telegram to tackle the terrorist threat in France,” the social media boss added, indicating that he had a relationship with them in the past.

Durov noted that he was also surprised by his arrest, since “the common practice is to initiate legal proceedings against the service itself” if “a country is dissatisfied with an Internet service.”

“Building technology is hard enough,” Durov continued. “No innovator will ever build new tools if they know they can be held personally responsible for any misuse of those tools.”

“Finding 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, but you also want to make sure they are not abused in countries with weak rule of law.”

“We have 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 have always been open to dialogue,” Durov stated, reiterating his all-encompassing view of the astonishing story.

The founder concluded his statement by once again thanking his supporters for their “love” and “memes.”

Resist the Mainstream has been reporting extensively on the ongoing Durov saga.

French authorities have filed serious charges against the dual UAE-French citizen, including drug offences and child sexual exploitation. However, the timing of Durov’s arrest has raised the most suspicions.

It comes hot on the heels of a conference sponsored by the Atlantic Council’s DFR Lab, which criticized Telegram’s refusal to censor information about the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

Durov also reportedly told French authorities that he had traveled to Paris for dinner at the invitation of French President Emmanuel Macron. If true, this could point to a possible plot orchestrated at the highest levels of government.

However, Macron has maintained that the arrest was not politically motivated.

Edward Snowden and Elon Musk both condemned the actions of the French authorities.

The arrest of Pavel Durov is a potential turning point in the ongoing battle between tech companies and government control.

As this debate unfolds, it will undoubtedly have far-reaching implications for online privacy, freedom of expression, and the future of encrypted communications platforms.

Telegram has nearly a billion active users and has become popular for its privacy-focused approach.

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