Telegram's Durov faces charges in France over user misuse
The accusations are "misguided" and "surprising" - said Pavel Durov, the creator of the Telegram messenger, who was detained in France. He assured Telegram that he would be ready to withdraw from countries where confidentiality and security requirements could not be reconciled.
Durov published his first comment on Thursday evening after being detained in France at the end of August on charges related to organized crime.
As he informed, he was told that he faces personal responsibility for users of the messenger using it unlawfully because the French authorities did not receive the required responses from Telegram. Durov assessed this as a "misguided approach," and the accusations are astonishing.
If a country is unhappy with an internet service, the established practice is to start a legal action against the service itself - he noted.
He assessed that it is a "misguided approach" to "use pre-smartphone era" regulations to accuse him - as the head of the company managing the service - of user crimes.
Durov argued that "establishing the right balance between privacy and security is not easy." He assured that Telegram tries to cooperate with regulators to find a balance and is 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 - added Durov.
He referred to the decision to withdraw the messenger from Russia and Iran when the authorities of those countries demanded the encryption keys—as was the case in Russia—or blocked certain channels, as Iran demanded. Telegram then refused and was blocked in Iran.
12 charges for the Russian billionaire
Durov, who is a Russian citizen and also holds a French passport, has been charged in France with 12 counts related to organized crime. As he mentioned in his comment, he was interrogated four days after arriving in Paris.
After being detained, Durov was released after posting bail in the amount of 8 million CAD. He is also required to report to the police station twice a week and cannot leave French territory.
