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Tengrinews.kz - Pavel Durov, the founder of VKontakte and Telegram, has commented for the first time on his detention in France.
Tengrinews.kz - Pavel Durov, the founder of VKontakte and Telegram, has commented for the first time on his detention in France.
In a statement posted on his Telegram channel, he reminded that last month, he was questioned by the police for four 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," he wrote.
He noted that this came as a surprise for several reasons. Telegram has an official representative in the EU who handles inquiries from authorities.
"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," Durov explained.
He emphasized that if a country is dissatisfied with an internet service, it is standard practice to initiate legal proceedings against the service itself. Using outdated laws to accuse the CEO of crimes committed by third parties on the platform is the wrong approach.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," Durov believes.
He noted that finding the right balance between privacy and security is a complex task. It requires aligning privacy laws with law enforcement requirements, and local laws with EU regulations, while also considering 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," he emphasized.
According to him, sometimes Telegram cannot reach an agreement with a country's regulators on the right balance between privacy and security.
Durov noted that Telegram is not perfect and needs improvements. However, claims that the platform is an "anarchic paradise" are incorrect.
"We take down millions of harmful posts and channels every day. We publish daily transparency reports. We have direct hotlines with NGOs to process urgent moderation requests faster," he wrote.
In his view, the growth of Telegram’s user base to 950 million has led to problems that have made it easier for attackers to misuse the platform. Durov has set himself the goal of improving this situation.
"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," he concluded.
Recall that the investigation into Telegram was initiated following Pavel Durov's detention in France last month.
The 39-year-old Durov faces several charges related to failing to take measures to prevent the spread of extremist and illegal content on the popular messenger.
