Telegram CEO says he’ll moderate better after getting arrested in France

2 weeks ago 9

Twelve days aft helium was arrested successful France, Telegram CEO Pavel Durov has breached his soundlessness with a 600-word statement connected his Telegram relationship that blames “growing pains that made it easier for criminals to maltreatment our platform.”

French authorities had charged Durov with enabling assorted forms of transgression enactment connected Telegram, including an unnamed person’s organisation of kid intersexual maltreatment worldly connected the platform. An unnamed connection from Telegram astatine the clip of his apprehension said Durov had “nothing to hide.”

While the immense bulk of his connection contiguous paints his apprehension arsenic astonishing and unfair, helium besides admits that policing Telegram has go harder. Durov says it’s present his “personal goal” to “significantly amended things successful this regard.”

Here’s Durov’s afloat statement:

❤️ Thanks everyone for your enactment and love!

Last period I got interviewed by constabulary for 4 days aft arriving successful Paris. I was told I whitethorn beryllium personally liable for different people’s amerciable usage of Telegram, due to the fact that the French authorities didn’t person responses from Telegram.

This was astonishing for respective reasons:

1. Telegram has an authoritative typical successful the EU that accepts and replies to EU requests. Its email code has been publically disposable for anyone successful the EU who googles “Telegram EU code for instrumentality enforcement”.

2. The French authorities had galore ways to scope maine to petition assistance. As a French citizen, I was a predominant impermanent astatine the French consulate successful Dubai. A portion ago, erstwhile asked, I personally helped them found a hotline with Telegram to woody with the menace of coercion successful France.

3. If a state is unhappy with an net service, the established signifier is to commencement a ineligible enactment against the work itself. Using laws from the pre-smartphone epoch to complaint a CEO with crimes committed by 3rd parties connected the level helium manages is simply a misguided approach. Building exertion is hard capable arsenic it is. No innovator volition ever physique caller tools if they cognize they tin beryllium personally held liable for imaginable maltreatment of those tools.

Establishing the close equilibrium betwixt privateness and information is not easy. You person to reconcile privateness laws with instrumentality enforcement requirements, and section laws with EU laws. You person to instrumentality into relationship technological limitations. As a platform, you privation your processes to beryllium accordant globally, portion besides ensuring they are not abused successful countries with anemic regularisation of law. We’ve been committed to engaging with regulators to find the close balance. Yes, we basal by our principles: our acquisition is shaped by our ngo to support our users successful authoritarian regimes. But we’ve ever been unfastened to dialogue.

Sometimes we can’t hold with a country’s regulator connected the close equilibrium betwixt privateness and security. In those cases, we are acceptable to permission that country. We’ve done it galore times. When Russia demanded we manus implicit “encryption keys” to alteration surveillance, we refused — and Telegram got banned successful Russia. When Iran demanded we artifact channels of peaceful protesters, we refused — and Telegram got banned successful Iran. We are prepared to permission markets that aren’t compatible with our principles, due to the fact that we are not doing this for money. We are driven by the volition to bring bully and support the basal rights of people, peculiarly successful places wherever these rights are violated.

All of that does not mean Telegram is perfect. Even the information that authorities could beryllium confused by wherever to nonstop requests is thing that we should improve. But the claims successful immoderate media that Telegram is immoderate benignant of anarchic paradise are perfectly untrue. We instrumentality down millions of harmful posts and channels each day. We people regular transparency reports (like this or this ). We person nonstop hotlines with NGOs to process urgent moderation requests faster.

However, we perceive voices saying that it’s not enough. Telegram’s abrupt summation successful idiosyncratic number to 950M caused increasing pains that made it easier for criminals to maltreatment our platform. That’s wherefore I made it my idiosyncratic extremity to guarantee we importantly amended things successful this regard. We’ve already started that process internally, and I volition stock much details connected our advancement with you precise soon.

I anticipation that the events of August volition effect successful making Telegram — and the societal networking manufacture arsenic a full — safer and stronger. Thanks again for your emotion and memes 🙏

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