The founder of Telegram, Pavel Durov, is still trying to understand the reasons behind his detention in France last August, although the motivations may have political undertones and are closely related to the authorities' crackdown on alleged illegal activities on the messaging platform.
This was one of the key points in Durov's interview with Tucker Carlson, which premiered on YouTube on Tuesday.
In his first public remarks since being arrested on August 24, 2024, at Bourget Airport in the suburbs of Paris, Durov stated that French authorities seemed primarily interested in the operational mechanisms of Telegram—"as if it were some kind of mysterious thing," he said with a hint of sarcasm.
"We are a large company, audited by the Big Four accounting firms, working with the largest financial institutions in the world […] we invest millions of dollars each quarter in legal compliance […] to ensure we do not violate any laws in the regions where we operate, in nearly 200 countries," Durov emphasized.
"Therefore, being detained in Paris and learning what Telegram did wrong or failed to address in certain requests was very confusing to me," he added.
Durov was charged by the French prosecution in August 2024 with six counts, including alleged conspiracy to participate in criminal activities, failure to respond to requests from French authorities, money laundering, organized crime, providing cryptocurrency services without proper declaration, and participating in the dissemination of illegal information allegedly due to Telegram's limited content moderation. At that time, the prosecution indicated he could face up to 10 years in prison.
"When I looked into it, I realized that we actually did nothing wrong," he stated, as French authorities reportedly did not follow due process in requesting information from Durov or Telegram.
When Carlson pressed Durov about the charges against him and why his freedom of movement remains restricted, Durov responded, "To be honest, I am still trying to figure out the situation. I feel confused." He went on to explain, "Initially, they claimed, 'You failed to respond to our legal requests, so you are an accomplice.' But first, the assertion that we did not respond to legally binding requests is not true; second, even for French […] law and judicial systems, this is an overly broad interpretation of the concept of 'conspiracy.'"
Durov's legal team described his detention as "unprecedented."
In the interview, Carlson not only criticized the fact of Durov's detention but also raised serious questions about the manner of the law enforcement process.
"Clearly, they are deliberately taking extreme measures to humiliate you," Carlson stated bluntly during the conversation.
Durov agreed, noting that his legal team informed him that the prosecutor's office typically operates in a non-public environment and rarely issues public statements. He further emphasized, "But in my case, it was completely different."
When Carlson questioned the silence of so-called civil liberties advocates, the TON community reported that over 9 million Telegram users had co-signed an open letter strongly calling for Durov's release.
Although this conversation with Carlson marked Durov's first public interview since his arrest, he had actually broken his silence shortly after the incident in September last year, clearly stating that if the policies of certain countries contradicted the platform's commitment to freedom of speech, Telegram was prepared to exit those markets.
According to the latest industry data, as of March this year, Telegram has become one of the most influential instant messaging platforms globally, with over 1 billion monthly active users.
Related: UK appoints commissioner for cryptocurrency recovery in bankruptcy cases
Original: “Telegram founder Durov talks about his arrest and detention in France: ‘I feel confused’”
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