Thanks everyone for your support and love!

Last month I got interviewed by police for 4 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.

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.

3. 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. Building technology is hard enough as it is. No innovator will ever build new tools if they know they can be personally held responsible for potential abuse of those tools. 

Establishing 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 laws. 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 rule of law. We’ve been committed to engaging 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’ve always been open to dialogue.

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. We've done it many times. When Russia demanded we hand over “encryption keys” to enable surveillance, we refused — and Telegram got banned in Russia. When Iran demanded we block channels of peaceful protesters, we refused — and Telegram got banned in Iran. We are prepared to leave markets that aren’t compatible with our principles, because we are not doing this for money. We are driven by the intention to bring good and defend the basic rights of people, particularly in places where these rights are violated.

All of that does not mean Telegram is perfect. Even the fact that authorities could be confused by where to send requests is something that we should improve. But 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. We publish daily transparency reports (like this or this ). We have direct hotlines with NGOs to process urgent moderation requests faster.

However, we hear voices saying that it’s not enough. Telegram’s abrupt increase in user count to 950M caused growing pains that made it easier for criminals to abuse our platform. That’s why I made it my personal goal to ensure we significantly improve things in this regard. We’ve already started that process internally, and I will share more details on our progress with you very soon. 

I hope that the events of August will result in making Telegram — and the social networking industry as a whole — safer and stronger. Thanks again for your love and memes.

$TON #ton #durov #toncoin #telegram

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Pavel Durov, the founder and CEO of Telegram, was reportedly arrested at Le Bourget airport in France under a search warrant issued by the French judicial police. The arrest stems from allegations that Telegram's anonymity features have facilitated crimes such as drug trafficking and fraud. Durov is now facing serious charges, including terrorism and narcotics trafficking.
Telegram Founder Pavel Durov Arrested in France
According to a report by French news outlet TF1 Info, Pavel Durov was taken into custody on Saturday evening after landing at Le Bourget airport on his private jet. The 39-year-old Franco-Russian entrepreneur was accompanied by a bodyguard and a woman at the time of his arrest by the Air Transport Gendarmerie.
Durov's arrest occurred after his arrival from Azerbaijan and was executed under a French search warrant issued by the French judicial police's Office for the Fight Against Illegal Narcotics (OFMIN). The warrant was activated due to his inclusion in the wanted persons file (FPR) and became effective upon his presence on French soil. A source close to the investigation told TF1 Info, as translated by Google:
"He made a blunder this evening. We don’t know why … Was this flight just a stopover? In any case, he’s in custody!"
Durov has been detained by the National Anti-Fraud Office (ONAF). French authorities have accused Telegram of enabling a significant number of offenses, including terrorism, narcotics trafficking, and fraud. A source familiar with the investigation added:
"On his platform, he allowed an incalculable number of offenses and crimes to be committed, for which he did nothing to moderate or cooperate."
The arrest has had a notable impact on the cryptocurrency market, with the price of toncoin (TON) plummeting following the news. As of now, TON is trading at $5.96, down 13% from earlier today.
What are your thoughts on Pavel Durov’s arrest and the accusations against Telegram for allegedly facilitating crimes? Share your opinions in the comments section below.
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#tonecoin #DurovCEOTelegram #durov