France's foreign intelligence service has categorically rejected accusations by the founder of the messaging app “Telegram” Pavel Durov that Paris tried to influence the presidential elections in Romania. This was reported by the Agence France-Presse agency, quoted by BTA.
The Directorate General for External Security (DGSE) said that in recent years it had been forced to contact Durov directly several times to remind him of his company's responsibilities in preventing terrorist threats and the distribution of child pornography.
“We categorically reject the allegations that we have requested the banning of accounts in connection with any electoral process“, the official statement said - a rare move for French foreign intelligence.
The reaction comes after publications by the 40-year-old Russian entrepreneur on the social network X (formerly Twitter), in which he accused “Western European governments“ of trying to silence conservative voices in Romania. Durov, who since 2021 is a naturalized French citizen, alluded to France with a baguette emoji.
The French Foreign Ministry also responded, calling the accusations “completely unfounded“.
Later, Durov published a new statement directly naming Nicolas Lerner, the head of French intelligence, as the person who had asked him this spring to ban conservative voices in Romania.
“I refused. We have not blocked protesters in Russia, Belarus or Iran and we will not do so in Europe,“ he wrote.
Romanian citizens voted yesterday in the second round of the presidential election between Gheorghe Simion - a nationalist sympathetic to Donald Trump and an opponent of military aid to Ukraine - and Nikusor Dan - a pro-European centrist, who won with 53.6% of the vote. Simion conceded defeat.
The first round of the November election was annulled by Romania's Constitutional Court after far-right candidate Calin Georgescu surprised with unexpected support, particularly on the TikTok platform - a campaign that raised suspicions of Russian interference, AFP notes.