Pavel Durov Issues Statement Addressing His Arrest and Legal Concerns Over Telegram Users' Activities

Pavel Durov, Telegram’s founder and CEO, made his first public statement after his arrest, revealing details about his detention and the charges against him.

Telegram founder and CEO Pavel Durov has made his first public statement since his arrest in Paris last month, revealing details about his detention and the charges against him.

“Last month I got interviewed by police for 4 days after arriving in Paris,” he said in a post on both his Telegram channel and social media platform X. Durov continued:

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.

Durov also highlighted his confusion regarding the handling of the situation by the French authorities and emphasized that Telegram has an official representative in the European Union specifically to address law enforcement requests.

He questioned the legal framework that seeks to hold CEOs responsible for third-party actions, stating: “If a country is unhappy with an internet service, the established practice is to start a legal action against the service itself. Using laws from the pre-smartphone era to charge a CEO with crimes committed by third parties on the platform he manages is a simplistic approach.”

Addressing concerns about privacy, Durov reaffirmed Telegram’s commitment to protecting users’ rights. He emphasized the challenge of balancing privacy with law enforcement needs but maintained that Telegram has consistently engaged with regulators to find solutions. Durov acknowledged that privacy is especially crucial in regions with authoritarian regimes, where Telegram has often taken a stand by refusing government demands, such as in Russia and Iran.

Despite the legal challenges, Durov acknowledged the concerns raised and pledged to take action to improve Telegram’s safeguards. He said:

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.

He expressed hope that the incident would serve as a catalyst for positive change in the industry, adding, “I hope that the events of August will result in making Telegram — and the social networking industry as a whole — safer and stronger.”

What do you think about Pavel Durov’s arrest and the potential legal responsibility of platform CEOs for user actions? Let us know in the comments section below.

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