Durov Breaks Silence: “Telegram Is Not an Anarchist Paradise” | EUROtoday

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Pavel Durov has damaged his silence. After his arrest in France, the founding father of Telegram posted a message on his channel calling the French authorities' motion “misleading” and criticizing their method to him. He then disputed allegations linking the messaging app to prison exercise, arguing that the authorities ought to have approached his firm immediately as an alternative of arresting him.

“If a country is dissatisfied with an internet service, the established practice is to initiate legal action against the service itself,” Durov wrote, denying any direct involvement in crimes dedicated by third events on the platform. He added that Telegram isn’t an “anarchist paradise”as some media have claimed, and that day-after-day his firm deletes tens of millions of posts and channels that violate the foundations.

The arrest

The arrest of Pavel Durov on August 25 at an airport close to Paris has brought on a global outcry. The fees in opposition to him embrace alleged complicity within the dissemination of photographs of kid sexual abusedrug trafficking and fraudulent transactions, all of which had been allegedly performed by means of Telegram. Although launched on bail, Durov is now beneath formal investigation and required to report back to a French police station twice per week.

Despite the accusations, the entrepreneur harassed within the message that French authorities already had a “hotline” to contact Telegram in case of emergency. This communication line, created by Durov himself, may have been used to handle the state of affairs with out having to resort to arrest.

The debate on content material moderation

Telegram, with a couple of billion customers worldwide, has lengthy been within the highlight for its dealing with of extremist and unlawful content material. The app permits for the creation of very giant teams and makes use of robust encryption, which has drawn the eye of critics and governments involved concerning the potential for spreading harmful content material.