Telegram Says Founder ‘Has Nothing to Hide’ From French Police

Pavel Durov, CEO and co-founder of Telegram speaks onstage during day one of TechCrunch Disrupt SF 2015 at Pier 70 on September 21, 2015 in San Francisco, California. Steve Jennings/Getty Images for TechCrunch

Telegram has said its co-founder, Pavel Durov, who has been arrested in France as part of a police investigation, “has nothing to hide” and said the app operates in according with the laws of the European Union.

Durov, a 39-year-old Russian-born billionaire who co-founded the app with his brother Nikolai, was arrested at Le Bourget airport near Paris after his private jet arrived from Azerbaijan on Saturday night.

Telegram, headquartered in Dubai, said its moderation was “within industry standards and constantly improving.”

The statement said: “Telegram’s CEO Pavel Durov has nothing to hide and travels frequently in Europe. It is absurd to claim that a platform or its owner are responsible for abuse of that platform.”

“We’re awaiting a prompt resolution of this situation. Telegram is with you all,” it added.

The French authorities have not commented on Durov’s arrest, as is common practice for a criminal investigation in France, but local media have reported an arrest warrant was issued, alleging Telegram has been used for money laundering, drug trafficking and sharing of content linked to the sexual abuse of children.

Durov, who has dual French and United Arab Emirates citizenship, founded the app in 2013 with his brother Nikolai, an expert in encryption.

‘No More Immigration’

Some governments have criticized Telegram for a lack of content moderation.

Earlier this month, in the wake of riots in England, government minister Jim McMahon told the BBC he was “concerned” by a list of immigration lawyers, with the phrase “no more immigration,” being circulated on Telegram.

Telegram has around a billion users and is particularly influential in Russia, Ukraine and other countries formerly members of the Soviet Union.

But it has been growing in Western Europe and North America and is ranked as one of the world’s biggest social media platforms after Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp, Instagram, TikTok and WeChat.

Durov’s arrest prompted a warning from the owner of Rumble, Chris Pavlovski, who said free speech in Europe was under attack.

Pavlovski wrote on social media platform X: “I’ve just safely departed from Europe. France has threatened Rumble, and now they have crossed a red line by arresting Telegram’s CEO, Pavel Durov, reportedly for not censoring speech.”

“Rumble will not stand for this behavior and will use every legal means available to fight for freedom of expression, a universal human right. We are currently fighting in the courts of France, and we hope for Pavel Durov’s immediate release,” he added.

X owner Elon Musk reposted Pavlovski’s post.

Musk has previously said, “Moderation is a propaganda word for censorship.”

The Russian government also expressed outrage at Durov’s arrest and accused the West of having double standards on freedom of speech.

Maria Zakharova, from Russia’s ministry of foreign affairs, said in a post on her personal Telegram account, “In 2018, a group of 26 NGOs, including Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Freedom House, Reporters Without Borders, the Committee to Protect Journalists, and others, condemned the Russian court’s decision to block Telegram.”

She added, “Do you think this time they’ll appeal to Paris and demand Durov’s release?”

Durov left Russia in 2014 after he refused to comply with demands to shut down opposition communities on another social media platform, VK, which he later sold.

Earlier this year he said, “I would rather be free than to take orders from anyone.”

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied Russia’s President Vladimir Putin met Durov in Azerbaijan last week but said he could not comment on the arrest until he knew details of the French allegations.

Telegram is not the first encryption app targeted by the French authorities.

A Record of Targeting Encrypted Networks

In 2019 the French gendarmerie’s forensic department, IRCGN (Institut de recherche criminelle de la gendarmerie nationale) and the C3N cyber crime unit hacked into the servers of Sky ECC, a Canadian-owned encryption network, at Roubaix, near Lille.

The following year they hacked into EncroChat’s server, also situated at the giant OVH complex in Roubaix, using methods that they will not reveal for reasons of “national security.”

In June 2020 EncroChat’s 50,000 users were notified the encryption had been compromised and since then thousands of people across Europe have been convicted of criminal offenses on the basis of EncroChat evidence.

Many of those convicted in Britain maintain their innocence and say the French hack of EncroChat was a “live intercept” that produced evidence not admissible in a British court.

In June 2021 Thomas Herdman, a Canadian national, was arrested in Madrid and later extradited to France accused of being part of a criminal operation to sell SkyECC encrypted phones to organized criminals.

He remains detained in Fleury-Mérogis prison, awaiting trial on 22 charges, and has had numerous bail applications refused.

It is understood the prosecutor who went after Herdman and SkyECC, Johanna Brousse, may be in charge of the investigation into Telegram.

Jean-Francois Eap, the founder of Sky Global, the Vancouver-based firm that created Sky ECC, was indicted by the U.S. federal authorities along with Herdman, but no efforts have been made to extradite him since Herdman’s arrest in Paris.

Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.