Durov commented on his arrest in France for the first time and spoke about the interrogation

Durov commented on his arrest in France for the first time and spoke about the interrogation Vladislav Kravtsov

What Durov said about his arrest and interrogation in France/Collage 24 Channel

Pavel Durov, after his release from custody, spoke out for the first time about his arrest in France. According to the Telegram founder, the police interrogated him for 4 days.

Pavel Durov noted that the interrogation concerned the illegal use of the messenger by other people. At the same time, the founder of the social network thanked those who worried about him while the events with his arrest were happening.

What Durov wrote about his arrest and interrogation

According to Durov, the police told him that he could be personally responsible for the illegal use of Telegram by other people, since the French authorities did not receive a response on this matter from the messenger's representatives.

The businessman noted that this was unexpected for him for several reasons. Firstly, as Pavel Durov noted, Telegram has an official representative in the EU who accepts requests and responds to them. His email address was publicly available to anyone in the European Union.

Secondly, the French authorities had many ways to contact me to ask for help. As a French citizen, I was a frequent visitor to the French consulate in Dubai. Some time ago, when I was asked, I personally helped them create a hotline with Telegram to combat the threat of terrorism in France, the founder of the social network wrote.

He also emphasized that if a country is unhappy with an Internet service, then the established practice is to file a lawsuit against the service itself.

“Using pre-smartphone laws to charge a CEO with crimes committed by third parties on the platform he runs is a misguided approach. The technology behind the construction is complex enough. No innovator would ever create new tools if they knew they could be held personally liable for potential abuse of those tools,” Durov said.

What is Telegram's policy on cooperation with countries

Durov also noted that the messenger's representatives are seeking to cooperate with regulators to find the right balance. Therefore, we have always been open to dialogue.

However, sometimes, when it is not possible to agree with the country's regulator regarding the right balance between privacy and security, then in such cases Telegram is ready to leave this country.

At the same time, Durov admitted that all this does not mean that Telegram is ideal. But statements in some media that Telegram is some kind of “anarchic paradise”, as the Russian emphasized, are absolutely not true.

We remove millions of malicious publications and channels every day. We publish daily transparency reports. We have direct hotlines with NGOs to process urgent moderation requests faster,” he explained.

Pavel Durov also noted that the sudden increase in the number of Telegram users to 950 million has caused increasing difficulties, making it easier for criminals to abuse our platform. That’s why he set himself the goal of making sure that the situation can be significantly improved in this regard.

Finally, the businessman expressed hope that the events of August will make Telegram – and the social media industry as a whole – safer and stronger.