Telegram CEO Durov says his arrest ‘misguided’
Pavel Durov, the founder and CEO of Telegram, has criticized French authorities, describing his recent arrest over claims of inadequate moderation on the app as “misguided.”
In his first public statement since his detention, Durov refuted accusations that Telegram is “some sort of anarchic paradise,” calling them “absolutely untrue.”
Durov was arrested on August 25 at an airport north of Paris and has been charged with alleged complicity in facilitating illicit transactions, drug trafficking, fraud, and the dissemination of child sex abuse images on his platform.
In his Telegram statement, Durov expressed that holding him accountable for crimes committed by others on the platform was both “surprising” and “misguided.”
“If a country is dissatisfied with an internet service, the standard practice is to initiate legal action against the service itself,” said the Russian-born billionaire, who also holds French citizenship. “Charging a CEO with crimes committed by third parties on a platform he manages, using laws from the pre-smartphone era, is a misguided approach.”
He emphasized the challenges of technological innovation and warned that no inventor would risk developing new tools if they faced personal liability for their misuse. Durov acknowledged that Telegram is not flawless but noted that French authorities had various channels to contact him and the app, which also has an official EU representative.
“The claims in some media that Telegram is some sort of anarchic paradise are untrue. We take down millions of harmful posts and channels every day,” he insisted.
Telegram allows groups of up to 200,000 members, which critics have argued makes it easier for misinformation to spread, and for users to share conspiracist, neo-Nazi, paedophilic, or terror-related content.
Recently in the UK, the app has been scrutinized for hosting far-right channels that were instrumental in organizing violent disorder in English cities last month.
Telegram did remove some groups, however, cybersecurity experts say overall its system of moderating extremist and illegal content is significantly weaker than that of other social media companies and messenger apps.
In his statement on Thursday, Mr Durov admitted that an “abrupt increase” in the number of users on the messaging app – which he put at 950 million – had “caused growing pains that made it easier for criminals to abuse our platform.”
He said he would aim to “significantly improve things in this regard”.
It comes after the BBC learned last week that Telegram has refused to join international programs aimed at detecting and removing child abuse material online.
Pavel Durov, 39, was born in Russia and now lives in Dubai, where Telegram is based. He holds citizenship in the United Arab Emirates and France.
Telegram, which he founded in 2013, is particularly popular in Russia, Ukraine, and former Soviet Union states.
The app was banned in Russia in 2018, after a previous refusal by him to hand over user data. The ban was reversed in 2021.
Telegram is ranked as one of the major social media platforms after Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp, Instagram, TikTok, and WeChat.
