Pavel Durov, the founder of the Telegram messenger who is under investigation in France, said French authorities should have addressed complaints to his company rather than detaining him.
Early Friday morning, Durov wrote his first public comments in Telegram since his detention last month. He also denied any suggestion that the app was an “anarchic paradise,” calling his arrest “misguided.”
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.
He said the investigation into the app was unexpected because French authorities had access to the “hot line” he helped create. Officials could have contacted Telegram’s EU representative at any time.
If a country is unhappy with an internet service, the established practice is to start a legal action against the service itself. 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.
French authorities detained the head of Telegram in late August as part of an investigation into offences related to child sexual abuse images, drug trafficking, and fraudulent operations allegedly flourishing in the app.
He was charged by the judiciary for allegedly allowing criminal activity on Telegram. Durov posted bail of 5 million euros and was released on condition that he would report to a police station twice a week and remain in France.
His unexpected arrest drew attention to the criminal liability of Telegram, a popular app with about 1 billion users. The incident sparked a storm of debate about freedom of speech and state censorship.
