In his first statement following his arrest in France in late August, Telegram co-founder and CEO has said that the social media giant is ready to leave any country that wants to violate the rights to privacy of its users.
“Sometimes we can’t agree with a country’s regulator on the right balance between privacy and security,” he said. “In those cases, we are ready to leave that country [and] we’ve done it many times.”
He noted that Telegram refused to grant Russia’s request when the country asked for “encryption keys to enable surveillance.” He added that in Iran, Telegram was banned “when Iran demanded we block channels of peaceful protesters”.
“We are prepared to leave markets that aren’t compatible with our principles because we are not doing this for money,” Durov affirmed.
Open communication with any nation
Moreover, he was surprised that the French government claimed they couldn’t reach out to him or the company, which ultimately led to his detention. He disclosed that Telegram has an EU representative to facilitate communications for any requests from EU countries, including France.
For instance, Telegram’s EU contact email is openly accessible, making it simple for anyone to reach out to the platform with any issues.
He noted that he has frequently facilitated a communication channel between the French consulate in Dubai and France to address terrorism-related concerns in France.
Improving Telegram rules
While acknowledging that the misuse of Telegram by malicious individuals is a genuine issue, he clarified that this was never the intended purpose of the platform.
Nevertheless, he assured that the team is committed to collaborating with each region where the app is accessible to develop a fair policy that considers both user interests and regional security.
“We’ve already started that process internally, and I will share more details on our progress with you very soon,” he added.
No politics involved
The arrest of Pavel Durov drew widespread criticism across the world necessitating the President of France, Emmanuel Macron to make a statement on the arrest of the Telegram CEO. According to Macron, the arrest contrary to widespread opinion was not a political move rather, the Telegram boss had been under investigation earlier.
