Pavel Durov, CEO of Telegram, at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, on Tuesday, February 23, 2016.
Chris Ratcliffe | Bloomberg | Getty Images
The boss of messaging platform Telegram said on Thursday night that the charges against him in France were “false”, in his first public comments since being detained in the country nearly two weeks ago.
Pavel DurovTelegram founder in 2013, is last week charged for enabling criminal activity on messaging apps — including child pornography, drug trafficking and fraud — and refusing to share information with authorities.
One of the charges — complicity in managing an online platform for conducting illegal transactions in an organized gang — carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a fine of 500,000 euros ($555,833) if someone is convicted after trial.
Durov, who has been in France since his arrest on August 24, has posted bail of 5 million euros and remains under court supervision. He cannot leave French territory and must report to police twice a week, prosecutors said last week.
In his first public comments on the situation, Durov said on Thursday that France’s decision to arrest and charge him was based on a “wrong approach.”
“If a country is unhappy with a particular internet service, it is common practice to sue that service,” Telegram’s CEO and founder said in a statement posted on his Telegram account.
“Using pre-smartphone era law to charge a CEO with crimes committed by third parties on the platform he manages is the wrong approach.”
“Building technology is hard. No innovator would build new tools if they knew they could be personally liable for the potential misuse of those tools,” he added.
Durov said he was questioned by French police for four days after arriving in Paris from Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, last month.
“I was told that I could be personally responsible for other people using Telegram illegally, because the French authorities had not received a response from Telegram,” he said, adding that this was “surprising” because Telegram has an official representative in the EU responsible for accepting and responding to requests.
The social media platform has worked with French authorities to “set up a hotline with Telegram to address the terrorist threat in France,” its founder said. Durov, a citizen of the United Arab Emirates, added that he is a “regular visitor to the French consulate in Dubai.”
Before Durov arrived in France, there was much speculation that he would meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Azerbaijan.
However, the Kremlin’s official spokesman told the BBC The meeting did not take place last week.
According to Forbes, the 39-year-old Russian billionaire has a net worth of about $15.5 billion, making him the 121st richest person in the world.
Telegram, the platform he co-founded, is often touted as a neutral and censorship-free platform.
But this approach has caused controversy for the app, with many governments raising concerns. that thing Telegram does not have adequate content controls to detect and remove illegal content.
Telegram is particularly popular in repressive regimes where use of the internet platform is heavily restricted. It is also known to be used by fraudsters, drug traffickers, and even designated terrorist organizations, which have previously used the service to claimed responsibility for the attacks.
For its part, Telegram has defended its moderation practices, saying last week that they are “within industry standards and are continually improving.”
Thank you everyone for your support and love!
Last month, I was questioned by the police for 4 days after arriving in Paris. I was informed that I could be held personally responsible for other people’s illegal use of Telegram, as the French authorities had not received any response from Telegram. This was surprising for a number of reasons:
- Telegram has an official representative in the EU that accepts and responds to EU requests. Telegram’s email address is publicly available to anyone in the EU who Googles “EU Telegram address for law enforcement.”
- The French authorities have several ways to contact me to request assistance. As a French citizen, I regularly visit the French consulate in Dubai. Some time ago, when asked, I personally helped them set up a hotline with Telegram to address the terrorist threat in France.
- If a country is unhappy with an internet service, it is established practice to initiate legal action against the service itself. Using pre-smartphone law to hold a CEO accountable for crimes committed by third parties on the platform he manages is the wrong approach. Building technology is hard enough. No innovator will build new tools if they know they could be held personally liable for potential abuses of those tools.
Striking 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 law. You have to take into account technological limitations. As a platform, you want your processes to be consistent globally, while also ensuring they are not abused in countries with weak laws. We are committed to working 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 are always open to dialogue.
Sometimes we can’t agree with a country’s regulators on the right balance between privacy and security. In those cases, we’re willing to leave that country. We’ve done this many times. When Russia asked us to hand over our “encryption keys” to enable surveillance, we refused—and Telegram was banned in Russia. When Iran asked us to block channels for peaceful protesters, we refused—and Telegram was banned in Iran. We’re willing to leave markets that don’t align with our principles because we’re not in it for the money. We’re driven by doing good and standing up for people’s basic rights, especially in places where those rights are being violated.
None of this means Telegram is perfect. Even the fact that authorities can get confused about where to send their requests is something we should work on. But claims in some media that Telegram is some kind of anarchist paradise are completely false. We remove millions of harmful posts and channels every day. We publish daily transparency reports (like this or this ). We have direct hotlines with NGOs to handle urgent censorship requests faster.
However, we hear voices saying that this is not enough. Telegram’s sudden increase to 950 million users has created difficulties that make it easier for criminals to abuse our platform. That’s why I’ve made it my personal goal to ensure we make significant improvements in this area. We’ve already started that process internally, and I’ll share more details about our progress with you soon.
I hope the events of August lead to a safer and stronger Telegram — and the entire social media industry. Thanks again for your love and memes.
