"Misguided Approach": Telegram CEO Releases First Statement After Arrest

Telegram CEO Pavel Durov has criticised French authorities in his first public statement since his arrest. Pavel Durov described his arrest as "misguided" and said that authorities should have approached his company with their complaints rather than detaining him. Durov was detained on August 25 as part of an investigation into criminal activity on Telegram. 

“If a country is unhappy with an internet service, the established practice is to start a legal action against the service itself,” said Pavel Durov in a post on Telegram on Thursday. The Russian-born tech entrepreneur also said it was “surprising” that he could be held personally accountable for illegal activities committed by other users on his social media platform. “Using laws from the pre-smartphone era to charge a CEO with crimes committed by third parties on the platform he manages is a misguided approach," the Telegram founder added, as quoted by Al Jazeera. 

Pavel Durov also noted that the platform has an official representative within the European Union and added that French authorities had “numerous ways” to reach him personally. Durov said Telegram was not perfect but denied any abuse associated with the app. Judicial authorities last week placed Pavel Durov under formal investigation on 12 charges. Recently, the 39-year-old was granted conditional release on a bail of five million euros and on the condition that he must report to a police station twice a week as well as remaining in France.