Pavel Durov stated it was “stunning” he was being held liable for different individuals’s content material.
Paris:
Telegram founder and chief govt Pavel Durov on Thursday hit out at France for arresting and charging him final month over the publication of extremist and unlawful content material on the favored messaging app.
In a prolonged put up on Telegram, his first remark since his arrest, Durov stated it was “stunning” he was being held liable for different individuals’s content material.
“Utilizing legal guidelines from the pre-smartphone period to cost a CEO with crimes dedicated by third events on the platform he manages is a misguided method,” he stated.
He additionally lashed out at claims that “Telegram is a few kind of anarchic paradise” as “completely unfaithful”, insisting: “We take down tens of millions of dangerous posts and channels on daily basis.”
He denied accusations from France that Paris had not obtained responses from Telegram to its requests, saying he had personally helped French authorities “set up a hotline with Telegram to take care of the specter of terrorism in France”.
– ‘Rising pains’ –
However hanging a extra conciliatory tone on the finish of his message, Durov stated Telegram’s hovering consumer numbers — which he now put at 950 million worldwide — “prompted rising pains that made it simpler for criminals to abuse our platform”.
“That is why I made it my private purpose to make sure we considerably enhance issues on this regard,” he stated, including that this was being labored out “internally” and extra particulars could be shared sooner or later.
“I hope that the occasions of August will lead to making Telegram — and the social networking trade as a complete — safer and stronger.”
He stated that when Telegram couldn’t agree on the “proper steadiness between privateness and safety” with native regulators then “we’re prepared to go away that nation”.
Durov, 39, was charged after 4 days below arrest in France on a number of counts of failing to curb extremist and unlawful content material on Telegram.
He has obtained assist from fellow tech tycoon and chief govt of X, Elon Musk, who posted feedback below the hashtag #FreePavel.
Durov was arrested on August 24 at Le Bourget airport outdoors Paris after arriving aboard a personal jet and questioned within the subsequent days by investigators.
He was granted conditional launch on a bail of 5 million euros ($5.5 million) and on the situation that he should report back to a police station twice every week in addition to remaining in France.
An enigmatic determine who not often speaks in public, Durov is a citizen of Russia, France and the United Arab Emirates, the place Telegram is predicated.
Forbes journal estimates his present fortune at $15.5 billion, although he proudly promotes the virtues of an ascetic life that features ice baths and never consuming alcohol or espresso.
(Aside from the headline, this story has not been edited by EDNBOX employees and is printed from a syndicated feed.)