Telegram founder claim French investigation is ‘misguided’

Pavel Durov, the founder and CEO of the social media platform Telegram, on Thursday called his arrest by French authorities “misguided” and “surprising.”

Durov, who was arrested last week by French law enforcement for lack of moderation on the social media platform, said he could not be held responsible for Telegram postings that are connected to criminal activities.

He is being investigated for complicity in allowing illicit transactions, drug trafficking, fraud, and the spread of child sexual abuse. They charged that all had found a safe haven on Telegram.

Durov, however, has denied such claims and said that his platform is not “some sort of anarchic paradise.”

The wealthy tech mogul said France should have sued his company if they had an issue with what was being posted and should not have targeted him personally.

“If a country is unhappy with an Internet service, the established practice is to start a legal action against the service itself,” Durov said in a statement on Telegram Thursday. “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.”

Durov said bad actors have long been rooted out of Telegram and they will continue to make that effort.

“While 99.999% of Telegram users have nothing to do with crime, the 0.001% involved in illicit activities create a bad image for the entire platform, putting the interests of our almost billion users at risk,” Durov said.

“That’s why this year we are committed to turn moderation on Telegram from an area of criticism into one of praise.”

Numerous law enforcement agencies, including those in the United States, have complained that terrorist organizations have used Telegram as their social media platform of choice to communicate. It said drug gangs and extremist organizations have followed suit.