'Will leave a country if forced to hand over user data...' Telegram CEO Pavel Durov in first reaction on his arrest
Pavel Durov, the founder and CEO of the instant messaging and social media platform, has claimed that his recent arrest in France was "surprising" as he was being held responsible for content posted by others.?In a post on his personal Telegram channel, the Russian-born billionaire said that he "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.¡±??
'Misguided approach'
The 39-year-old, who is also a French citizen living in Dubai, said arresting him was unnecessary as there were several other means to reach him.??
¡°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," he wrote.??
Improving content moderation on Telegram
Refuting the charges that Telegram enables illegal activities on the platform by not moderating its content, Durov said that they have been taking down millions of accounts and channels for violating their rules.??
"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," he said.??
'Won't compromise on user privacy'
Amid speculations of Telegram user data and privacy being compromised following his arrest, Durov asserted that they would rather leave the country if the authorities insist on such demands.??
"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¡ªand Telegram got banned in Russia. When Iran demanded we block channels of peaceful protesters, we refused¡ªand 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," he said.
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