By Anthony Marcus, correspondent for Eurasia Business News. September 5, 2024. Article No 1215.
Telegram founder Pavel Durov published his first post after his detention in France on his channel on Telegram. He believes that it was a mistake to accuse him of crimes committed in the messenger by third parties. However, Pavel Durov assured that Telegram will take more measures to combat crime.
Mr. Durov said that the French police in Paris interrogated him for four days. He called the claims from the French authorities surprising, explaining that Telegram has a representative in the European Union who responds to requests, and the French authorities had many ways to contact Pavel Durov personally. He also claims to have helped set up a “hotline” to fight terrorism in France.
During interrogation in Paris with French police, Pavel Durov said that he had met with French counterintelligence officers in Dubai, revealed local newspapers. Telegram refused to cooperate with the French authorities, but Durov stressed that it complies with EU laws.
According to him, if a country is dissatisfied with the work of a certain service, then it is “common practice” to file a lawsuit. “Using laws adopted in the era before smartphones to accuse the CEO (of the company) of crimes committed by third parties on its platform is a mistaken approach… No innovator will create new tools knowing that he can be held accountable for the potential abuse of these tools,” Mr. Durov believes.
The Russian-French tech tycoon noted that “striking the right balance between privacy and security is not easy,” but Telegram is committed to engaging with regulators and is “always open to dialogue.”
“Sometimes we can’t agree with a country’s regulator on the right balance between privacy and security. In those cases, we are ready to leave that country. We’ve done it many times.”
“When Russia demanded that we hand over the ‘encryption keys’ to ensure surveillance, we refused, and Telegram was banned in Russia. When Iran demanded that we block the channels of peaceful protesters, we refused — and Telegram was banned in Iran. We are willing to leave markets that are incompatible with our principles, because we are not doing it for the money. We are driven by the intention to do good and protect the fundamental rights of people, especially in places where these rights are violated,” Pavel Durov assures.
“All of that does not mean Telegram is perfect. Even the fact that authorities could be confused by where to send requests is something that we should improve. But the claims in some media that Telegram is some sort of anarchic paradise are absolutely untrue. We take down millions of harmful posts and channels every day. We publish daily transparency reports (like this or this ). We have direct hotlines with NGOs to process urgent moderation requests faster.”
“However, we hear voices saying that it’s not enough. Telegram’s abrupt increase in user count to 950 Millions caused growing pains that made it easier for criminals to abuse our platform. That’s why I made it my personal goal to ensure we significantly improve things in this regard. We’ve already started that process internally, and I will share more details on our progress with you very soon.”
Pavel Durov ended his message, writing : “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.”
Durov was detained on the evening of August 24 at Paris’ Le Bourget airport, where he flew from Baku on a private jet. Four days later, he was released under judicial supervision and after payment of a € 5 million bail.
The Kremlin said it was ready to help Durov, since he still has a Russian passport along with the French one. Consular access to the founder of Telegram was also requested by the UAE, of which he is also a citizen. In addition, Pavel Durov has citizenship of St. Kitts and Nevis.
Pavel Durov’s net worth is currently estimated at $15.5 billion as of August 2024. This makes him the 150th wealthiest person in the world.
The EU authorities are also investigating, who believe that Telegram could underestimate the number of users in the EU in order not to comply with the norms for large IT companies, the Financial Times reports. In its reports, Telegram indicated that the messenger has less than 45 million users in the European Union.
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“The director of Telegram was detained as part of an ongoing judicial investigation,” French President Emmanuel Macron said, apparently meaning that this case is not a personal case agaisnt Mr. Pavel Durov, but a large investigation of various crimes committed by users of the Telegram messenger.
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© Copyright 2024 – Eurasia Business News. Article no. 1215.
Eurasia Business News 