Telegram CEO Pavel Durov broke his silence on Thursday after he was arrested by French authorities last month. In a detailed post on his Telegram channel, Durov expressed his surprise at the arrest, which took place after he arrived in Paris on August 24.
“Last month, I was interviewed by police for four 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.
Durov, who became a French citizen in 2021, explained that Telegram has an official representative in the European Union who handles requests from EU authorities. He also mentioned that he had previously helped French authorities set up a hotline with Telegram to address terrorism-related threats in France.
Durov was arrested just days after his arrival and was handed preliminary charges on August 28. The charges accuse him of being involved in the distribution of child sexual abuse material and drug trafficking on Telegram.
Although Durov has since been released from custody, he is currently not allowed to leave France.
“If a country is unhappy with an internet service, the established practice is to start legal action against the service itself,” Durov argued. He criticized the French authorities for using outdated laws to hold him accountable for crimes committed by others on his platform. “Building technology is hard enough as it is,” he added.
French President Emmanuel Macron responded to the situation, stating that Durov’s arrest was not politically motivated. “The arrest of Telegram’s president on French territory took place as part of an ongoing judicial investigation. This is in no way a political decision. It is up to the judges to decide,” Macron posted on X.
Durov acknowledged the challenges Telegram faces in balancing privacy with security and said that the company has been working with regulators to find the right balance. “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,” he said, noting that Telegram was banned in Russia and Iran for refusing to comply with local authorities.
Durov also admitted that Telegram’s rapid growth to 950 million users has created challenges, making it easier for criminals to exploit the platform.
“That’s why I made it my personal goal to ensure we significantly improve things in this regard,” he wrote.
