Telegram is no 'anarchic paradise' says chief Durov over French probe

Telegram founder and CEO Pavel Durov has admitted his shock at being investigated, saying French authorities should have approached his company with their complaints rather than detaining him.

It is Durov's first public comments since his arrest near Paris on August 24, amid an investigation into crimes related to child pornography, drug trafficking and fraudulent transactions associated with the app. 

Writing on his Telegram channel, Durov denied any suggestion the app was an "anarchic paradise" and promised to step up efforts to fight criminality on the messaging app. 

"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 said.

"Building technology is hard enough as it is. No innovator will ever build new tools if they know they can be personally held responsible for potential abuse of those tools.”

Durov said the investigation into the app was "surprising" in that French authorities had access to a "hotline" he had helped set up and they could have contacted Telegram's EU representative through a public email address at any time. 

"If a country is unhappy with an internet service, the established practice is to start a legal action against the service itself," the post added.

Durov admitted Telegram was "not perfect", but denied any abuse associated with the app and that surging numbers of Telegram users "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, and I will share more details on our progress with you very soon."

French allegations against the 39-year-old include that Telegram is used for child sexual abuse material and drug trafficking, and that the platform refused to share information or documents with investigators when required by law.

In his post, Durov said that while in police detention, "I 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."

French investigators detained Durov at Le Bourget airport outside Paris in late August and questioned him for four days as part of a sweeping probe opened earlier this year. 

He has been charged by the French judiciary for allegedly allowing criminal activity on the messaging app, but was released on a bail of $5.5 million. Durov now has to report to a police station twice a week. 

Durov was born in Russia and has amassed multiple citizenships, including French.

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