The head of messaging platform Telegram said late Thursday that France's allegations against him were “misguided,” in his first public comments since his detention in France nearly two weeks ago.
Pavel Durov, who founded Telegram in 2013, was charged last week with facilitating criminal activities through the messaging app – including distributing child pornography, drug trafficking and fraud, in addition to refusing to offer information to authorities.
One of the costs – complicity in managing a web-based platform to facilitate illegal transactions in an organized gang – carries a maximum penalty of ten years in prison and a nice of 500,000 euros ($555,833) if someone is found guilty after a trial.
Durov, who has been in France since his arrest on August 24, has posted bail of 5 million euros and stays under judicial supervision. He is just not allowed to go away French territory and must report back to a police station twice every week, prosecutors said last week.
In his first public comment on the situation, Durov said on Thursday that France's decision to arrest and charge him was based on a “misguided approach”.
“When a country is dissatisfied with an internet service, the common practice is to take legal action against the service itself,” Telegram’s CEO and founder said in a press release posted on his Telegram account.
“Using pre-smartphone laws to prosecute a CEO for crimes committed by third parties on the platform he manages is a misguided approach.”
“Developing technology is hard enough. No innovator will ever develop new tools if they know they can be held personally responsible for the potential misuse of those tools,” he added.
Durov said he was interrogated by French police for 4 days after arriving in Paris last month from Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan.
“I have been told that I may be personally responsible for the illegal use of Telegram by others because the French authorities have not received any responses from Telegram,” he said, adding that this was “surprising” on condition that Telegram has an official representative within the EU who receives and responds to inquiries.
The social media platform has already worked with French authorities to “set up a hotline with Telegram to combat the threat of terrorism in France,” its founder said. Durov, a citizen of the United Arab Emirates, added that he was “a frequent guest at the French consulate in Dubai.”
Before Durov's arrival in France, there was speculation that he would meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Azerbaijan.
The official spokesman of the Kremlin told the BBC last week that no meeting ever took place.
The 39-year-old Russian-born billionaire has a net value of around $15.5 billion, making him the 121st richest person on this planet, in accordance with Forbes.
Telegram, the platform he co-founded, was often marketed as an uncensored and neutral platform.
However, this approach has led to controversy for the app, with quite a few governments raising concerns The Telegram doesn’t have sufficient content moderation controls to detect and take away illegal content.
Telegram is especially popular in repressive regimes where the usage of web platforms is heavily restricted. It can be known to be utilized by gangs of fraudsters, drug traffickers and even terrorist organizations, who’ve used the service to assert responsibility for attacks.
Telegram, for its part, defended its moderation practices, saying last week that they “meet industry standards and are constantly improving.”
Thank you all on your support and love!
Last month, I used to be questioned by police for 4 days after arriving in Paris. I used to be told that I could also be personally answerable for the illegal use of Telegram by others, because the French authorities had not received any responses from Telegram. This was surprising for several reasons:
- Telegram has an official representative within the EU who receives and responds to EU requests. His email address is publicly available to anyone within the EU who googles “Telegram EU law enforcement address.”
- The French authorities had quite a few opportunities to achieve me and ask for support. As a French citizen, I used to be a frequent guest on the French consulate in Dubai. Some time ago, upon their request, I personally helped them arrange a hotline using Telegram to combat the specter of terrorism in France.
- When a rustic is unhappy with an online service, it’s common practice to take legal motion against the service itself. Using pre-smartphone laws to charge a CEO with crimes committed by third parties on the platform he manages is a misguided approach. Developing technology is difficult enough because it is. No innovator will ever develop recent tools knowing that he could possibly be held personally answerable for potential misuse of those tools.
Finding the proper balance between privacy and security is just not easy. You should balance data protection laws with law enforcement requirements, and native laws with EU laws. You have to think about technological limitations. As a platform, you would like processes to be consistent the world over, but at the identical time, you must make certain they will not be abused in countries with weak rule of law. We are committed to working with regulators to search out the proper balance. Yes, we stand by our principles: our experience is formed by our mission to guard our users in authoritarian regimes. But now we have at all times been open to dialogue.
Sometimes we will't agree with a rustic's regulators on the proper balance between privacy and security. In those cases, we're willing to go away the country. We've done that persistently before. When Russia asked us at hand over “encryption keys” to enable surveillance, we refused — and Telegram was banned in Russia. When Iran asked us to dam channels of peaceful protesters, we refused — and Telegram was banned in Iran. We're willing to go away markets which can be inconsistent with our principles, because we're not on this for the cash. We're driven by a desire to do good and defend people's basic rights, especially in places where those rights are violated.
All this doesn’t mean that Telegram is ideal. The indisputable fact that authorities is perhaps confused about where to send requests can be something we should always improve. But the claims in some media that Telegram is a few sort of anarchic paradise are absolutely false. We remove tens of millions of malicious posts and channels every single day. We publish day by day transparency reports (like The or The We have direct hotlines to NGOs to process urgent moderation requests more quickly.
However, we hear voices saying that this is just not enough. The sudden increase in Telegram's user base to 950 million caused teething issues that made it easier for criminals to abuse our platform. That's why I've made it my personal goal to make certain we significantly improve things on this regard. We've already began this process internally and I'll share more details on our progress with you shortly.
I hope that the events of August will end in Telegram – and your entire social networking industry – becoming safer and stronger. Thanks again on your love and your memes
image credit : www.cnbc.com