"Detention was misguided," says Pavel Durov

Telegram app CEO Pavel Durov has written on X that he extends gratitude to everyone who stayed with him during the tough time. On Thursday he stated on his messaging app platform that the “detention was misguided” as they had to be approached with the companies first-hand instead of detaining him at the French airport. That was his first public remarks since he was arrested at the French airport and charged last month by the French authorities.

On Friday, besides thanking his followers, Durov said on the X platform that he was surprised at the incidents that happened at the airport and he is still trying to figure it out. He wrote: “Last month I got interviewed by police for 4 days after arriving in Paris. I was told I may be personally responsible for other people’s illegal use of Telegram because the French authorities didn’t receive responses from Telegram.”

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He detailed that  Telegram has an official representative in the EU that accepts and replies to EU requests that the email address has been publicly available for anyone in the EU who googles “Telegram EU address for law enforcement”.

❤️ Thanks everyone for your support and love!

Last month I got interviewed by police for 4 days after arriving in Paris. I was told I may be personally responsible for other people’s illegal use of Telegram because the French authorities didn’t receive responses from Telegram.…

— Pavel Durov (@durov) September 6, 2024

He also highlighted that no innovator will ever build new tools if they know they can be personally held responsible for the potential abuse of those tools. He stressed that “growing pains” on Telegram, a platform which has 950 million users made it easy for criminals to abuse the platform and that’s why he made it his personal goal to ensure that Telegram significantly improved things in this regard.

Also, read| Telegram CEO Pavel Durov Arrested At French Airport: Report

It was on August 25th that the  French authorities arrested  Durov, the 39-year-old entrepreneur in Paris.  He was detained when he arrived in his private jet at Le Bourget Airport in Paris. He was arrested for the crimes on Telegram including the spread of child sexual abuse material, fraud and drug sales, gambling and so on. After 4 days on August 28th French authorities released CEO Pavel Durov from custody and his lawyer stated that he would appear in court further.