The founder and CEO of "Telegram" ; Pavel Durov criticized France today for arresting him and charging him with publishing illegal content in the application, France Press reported, cited by BTA.
In a lengthy statement in "Telegram", which is his first reaction after the arrest, Durov defines as “surprising” be held responsible for content posted by other people.
„Using laws from the pre-smartphone era to charge a CEO with crimes committed by third parties on the platform he runs is an unreasonable approach,” the 39-year-old billionaire said.
He also rejected claims that “Telegram" is some kind of anarchic paradise”, calling them “absolutely unfaithful”.
„Every day we delete millions of harmful messages”, noted Durov.
He denied accusations that Paris had not received any responses from "Telegram" of their requests. Durov stated that he personally helped the French authorities “create a telephone hotline with "Telegram" to deal with the terrorist threat in France“.
At the end of his statement, Durov adopted a more conciliatory tone and admitted that the sharp increase in the number of users of "Telegram", which he now estimates at 950 million worldwide, has led to a situation that is “ made it easier for criminals to abuse our platform”.