'Telegram Not Anarchic Paradise', CEO Pavel Durov Claims His Arrest Was 'Misguided'. Check Out His Full Message

"If a country is unhappy with an internet service, the established practice is to start a legal action against the service itself," Durov posted on Telegram.

Durov’s arrest stems from accusations that Telegram’s moderation policies allow illegal activities to flourish unchecked.

Source : Facebook/Pavel Durov

Telegram founder and CEO Pavel Durov has criticised French authorities following his recent arrest, describing the move as "misguided." Durov, who was detained on August 25 at an airport near Paris, faces charges of conspiracy in facilitating illegal activities on the messaging platform, including drug trafficking, fraud, and the distribution of child exploitation material.

In his first public response since the arrest, Durov rejected allegations that Telegram operates as an "anarchic paradise," emphasising that the platform actively moderates harmful content. The idea that Telegram is some sort of "anarchic paradise" is "absolutely untrue,” Durov stated in a message posted on the app.

What Did Durov Post On Telegram?

Here's his full message, as shared on his official Telegram account, 'Du Rove's Channel': 

"Thanks everyone for your support and love!

Last month I got interviewed by police for 4 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.

This was surprising for several reasons: 

1. Telegram has an official representative in the EU that accepts and replies to EU requests. Its email address has been publicly available for anyone in the EU who googles “Telegram EU address for law enforcement”. 

2. 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.

3. 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 misguided 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. 

Establishing the right balance between privacy and security is not easy. You have to reconcile privacy laws with law enforcement requirements, and local laws with EU laws. You have to take into account 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.

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 we hand over “encryption keys” to enable surveillance, we refused — and Telegram got banned in Russia. When Iran demanded we block channels of peaceful protesters, we refused — and Telegram got banned in Iran. We are prepared to leave markets that aren’t compatible with our principles, because we are not doing this for money. We are driven by the intention to bring good and defend the basic rights of people, particularly in places where these rights are violated.

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 950M 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. 

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."

Why Was Durov Arrested?

Durov’s arrest stems from accusations that Telegram’s moderation policies allow illegal activities to flourish unchecked. The Russian-born tech mogul, who also holds French citizenship, argued that holding him personally accountable for third-party actions on Telegram is a flawed approach. 

The Telegram CEO acknowledged the app’s challenges, especially in moderating content as its user base has surged to approximately 950 million. He noted that Telegram removes millions of harmful posts and channels daily and insisted that French authorities had numerous ways to contact him or Telegram’s EU representative. Despite admitting to some moderation shortcomings, Durov committed to enhancing the platform's oversight to better tackle misuse.

Telegram, which supports groups of up to 200,000 members, has come under scrutiny for enabling the spread of extremist content. Recently, the app was flagged in the UK for hosting far-right channels involved in organising violent incidents in English cities. While Telegram has removed some problematic groups, cybersecurity experts argue that the platform’s moderation measures lag behind other major social media companies.

The controversy surrounding Telegram intensified after it was reported that the platform declined to join international efforts to identify and eliminate child abuse content online.

Durov, 39, who founded Telegram in 2013, resides in Dubai, where the platform is headquartered. Despite being banned in Russia in 2018 due to his refusal to provide user data to authorities, the app’s ban was lifted in 2021. Telegram remains particularly popular in Russia, Ukraine, and other former Soviet states, ranking among the world’s leading social media platforms alongside Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok.