(Times of Update) — Telegram CEO Pavel Durov defended the encrypted messaging app in his first public comments since his arrest in Paris last month, while acknowledging the “growing pains” of rapidly expanding to 950 million users and vowing to crack down on criminal abuse.
Times of Update’s most read articles
The social media billionaire was indicted last week in France for failing to prevent the spread of illicit content on the app, including child pornography and drug sales. Telegram has often been criticized by governments, including those in the European Union and authoritarian regimes in Russia and Iran, over the platform’s content, which has become a gathering place for conspiracy theorists and extremists.
Pavel Durov, 39, has consistently taken a hands-off approach to content moderation on the app, refusing to respond to legal requests or cooperate with law enforcement, according to Paris authorities. In his Telegram post on Thursday, Pavel said the messaging platform had cooperated with EU requests and that the site removed millions of harmful posts every day.
“All this does not mean that Telegram is perfect,” he wrote. “But the claims of some media outlets that Telegram is some kind of lawless paradise are absolutely false.” Durov said he plans to improve the way the site handles harmful content and make it easier for authorities to send requests to the app.
The entrepreneur’s platform may be putting safeguards in place. Multiple outlets, including The Verge and Coindesk, have reported that Telegram is preparing to allow users to report questionable content in private conversations. The company removed a statement from an online FAQ that it would not interfere with private conversations and replaced it with a brief guide on how to report “illegal” content, the outlets reported.
However, Durov made clear that he considered his detention in France an excessive measure, saying that governments should take “legal measures against the service itself”, rather than holding leaders personally responsible.
“Using pre-smartphone laws to charge a CEO with crimes committed by third parties on the platform he manages is a misguided approach,” he wrote. “Building technology is hard enough. No innovator will ever create new tools if they know they can be held personally liable for any abuse of those tools.”
The charges against Durov could earn him up to 10 years in prison. Telegram was launched in 2013 as a messaging platform similar to WhatsApp and has grown into a multipurpose app that also provides services such as news feeds, online shopping and games.
Durov has received support from X owner Elon Musk and others in the social media industry because of the implications of his arrest for free speech.
–With the assistance of Ville Heiskanen.
Times of Update Businessweek’s Most Read Articles
©2024 Times of Update LP
Discover more from The Times Of Update
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
