Telegram CEO Pavel Durov posted after the arrest “I’m still trying to understand what happened in France” on his X page and opened up with a brief statement about the concern and improvement in his messaging app ‘Telegram’.
Pavel Durov is a Russian business and entrepreneur, who along with his brother Nikolai Durov launched the cloud-based, cross-platform, social media and instant messaging app in 2013. On August 24, 2024, a bolt from the blue happened in France. After the arrival of Telegram CEO Pavel Durov in Paris on his private jet the authorities detained him and arrested him as a part of an ongoing judicial investigation. The French authorities say that this messaging app has been facilitating illegal activities, child exploitation, drug trafficking, and the widespread of extremist content. French authorities had expressed their concern over Telegram’s minimal content moderation. But Pavel Durov has denied the responsibility for the content moderation and privacy improvements.
A surprise
Pavel Durov stated that this was a surprise and the French authorities could have informed his Telegram European representative instead of holding him. He has also mentioned that they have cooperated in the past about the app’s misuse and aiding anti-terrorism efforts in France.
Panel Durov’s post in X and Telegram
After his release after four days on 5 million euros bail, Pavel Durov has opened up about his surprising arrest through posts on his X page and Telegram app respectively.
“I’m still trying to understand what happened in France. But we hear the concerns. I made it my personal goal to prevent abusers of Telegram’s platform from interfering with the future of our 950+million users”.
He has given a long statement in the Telegram app,
I'm still trying to understand what happened in France. But we hear the concerns. I made it my personal goal to prevent abusers of Telegram's platform from interfering with the future of our 950+ million users.
— Pavel Durov (@durov) September 5, 2024
My full post below. https://t.co/cDvRSodjst
“This was surprising for several reasons:
1. 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”.
2. The French authorities had numerous ways to reach me to request assistance. As a French citizen, I was a frequent guest at the French consulate in Dubai. A while ago, when asked, I personally helped them establish a hotline with Telegram to deal with the threat of terrorism in France.”
Read his full statement in the below link.
