Pavel Durov, the CEO of the instant messaging software Telegram, issued his first statement after his arrest in France. He not only criticized the French authorities for the reasons for his arrest, but also stated that Telegram was prepared to withdraw from the market that cannot coexist harmoniously with the principles of the platform.
Durov said in a statement that he was informed by police that he could be personally responsible for others' illegal use of Telegram because French authorities had not received a response from Telegram. Durov was surprised by this and claimed that Telegram had an official representative in the EU who was able to accept and respond to EU requests, and that the French authorities also had multiple ways to contact me for help.
Durov went on to blast the government's legal action against him:
“If a country is dissatisfied with an online service, the established approach is to initiate legal action against the service itself. Using laws from the pre-smartphone era, crimes committed by third parties on a platform managed by a CEO It's a misguided approach to sue him. Developing technology is hard enough, and no one will want to build new tools if they know they could be personally responsible for the potential misuse of those tools."
In his statement, Durov also cited the process of Telegram being banned in Russia and Iran as an example:
"Sometimes we are unable to agree with a country's regulators on the appropriate balance between privacy and security. In those cases, we prepare to leave that country, and we have done so many times. When Russia asks us When asked to hand over "encryption keys" for surveillance, we refused - so Telegram was banned in Russia; when Iran asked us to block the channels of peaceful protesters, we refused - so Telegram was banned in Iran. "Leave markets that are incompatible with our principles because we don't do it for the money, we are motivated by the intention to deliver good and defend people's fundamental rights, especially where those rights are being violated."
Durov finally admitted that Telegram still needs improvement, and that the rapid increase in the number of users has also brought "growing pains", making it easier for criminals to abuse the platform. He said Telegram has started an improvement process internally and will share more details in the future.
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.My full post below. https://t.co/cDvRSodjst
— Pavel Durov (@durov) September 5, 2024
Durov was arrested on arrival at an airport in France last month and later indicted by the country's courts on charges including conspiring to distribute sexual images of children, drug trafficking and refusing to cooperate with law enforcement. The authorities have released Durov under "judicial supervision" and required the Telegram founder to stay in France.
Telegram updates FAQ page
According to information shared by DB News, Telegram has changed the description of private chat censorship on its Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page.
In the section on how to remove illegal content on Telegram, the text "All Telegram chats and group chats are private conversations between participants. We do not process any requests related to this." was deleted from the answer and New methods for reporting illegal content have been added, as well as descriptions such as "Users from the EU are welcome to view the EU Digital Services Act user guide to learn about relevant reporting options."
Telegram quietly updates FAQ, removing:"All Telegram chats and group chats are private amongst their participants. We do not process any requests related to them." pic.twitter.com/ajWOOBAAB5
— db (@tier10k) September 6, 2024
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