Telegram chief Durov blasts 'surprising' and 'misguided' French charges

Telegram founder and chief executive Pavel Durov on Thursday hit out at France for arresting and charging him last month over the publication of extremist and illegal content on the popular messaging app.

In a lengthy post on Telegram, his first comment since his arrest, Durov said it was "surprising" he was being held responsible for other people's content.

"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.

He also lashed out at claims that "Telegram is some sort of anarchic paradise" as "absolutely untrue", insisting: "We take down millions of harmful posts and channels every day."

He denied accusations from France that Paris had not received responses from Telegram to its requests, saying he had personally helped French authorities "establish a hotline with Telegram to deal with the threat of terrorism in France".

- 'Growing pains' -

But striking a more conciliatory tone at the end of his message, Durov said Telegram's soaring user numbers -- which he now put at 950 million worldwide -- "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," he said, adding that this was being worked out "internally" and more details would be shared in the future.

"I hope that the events of August will result in making Telegram -- and the social networking industry as a whole -- safer and stronger."

He said that when Telegram could not agree on the "right balance between privacy and security" with local regulators then "we are ready to leave that country".

Durov, 39, was charged after four days under arrest in France on several counts of failing to curb extremist and illegal content on Telegram.

He has received support from fellow tech tycoon and chief executive of X, Elon Musk, who posted comments under the hashtag #FreePavel.

Durov was arrested on August 24 at Le Bourget airport outside Paris after arriving aboard a private jet and questioned in the subsequent days by investigators.

He was granted conditional release on a bail of five million euros ($5.5 million) and on the condition that he must report to a police station twice a week as well as remaining in France.

An enigmatic figure who rarely speaks in public, Durov is a citizen of Russia, France and the United Arab Emirates, where Telegram is based.

Forbes magazine estimates his current fortune at $15.5 billion, though he proudly promotes the virtues of an ascetic life that includes ice baths and not drinking alcohol or coffee.