Telegram CEO Durov breaks silence: First statement after detention

Telegram CEO Pavel Durov, who was detained in Paris and released four days later, has broken his silence. Durov said he was surprised by the development.

Telegram CEO Pavel Durov has spoken out for the first time after being detained and released in Paris for four days.

In a post he shared on his Telegram channel, Durov said he was interrogated by police in Paris for four days and that French authorities were trying to prosecute him for illegally using Telegram. While saying he was surprised by the development, Durov emphasized that Telegram has an official representative in the European Union and that there are many ways for authorities to contact him. Durov wrote:

"The French authorities had many options to contact me. As a French citizen, I was in regular contact with the French consulate in Dubai and personally helped set up a hotline with Telegram to combat terrorism in France." Durov argued that blaming the CEO for crimes committed by third parties on the platform he runs by implementing laws that predate smartphones was the wrong approach.He continued: “Developing technology is already difficult. Innovators will not develop new technologies if they are personally responsible for their possible abuse.” Durov said that Telegram takes a strong stance on maintaining a balance between privacy and security, and recalled that they pulled out of these countries due to disagreements with the Russian and Iranian governments in the past: “When Russia asked us to provide passwords, we refused, and Telegram was banned. Likewise, when they asked us to block channels of peaceful protesters in Iran, we refused. We are always ready to leave markets that do not meet our principles.”