According to ChainCatcher, the Wall Street Journal reported that a person close to Pavel Durov revealed that Telegram had long ignored subpoenas from law enforcement agencies and piled them up in a rarely checked company mailbox.

In 2018, French President Macron invited Pavel Durov to move Telegram to Paris and considered granting him French citizenship. In addition, people familiar with the matter said that in 2017, French and UAE spy agencies teamed up to hack into Durov's iPhone, with the operation codenamed "Purple Music".