A lawyer for Telegram boss Pavel Durovwho’s below investigation in France, mentioned it was “completely absurd” to recommend the top of a social community was answerable for any prison acts dedicated on the platform, French media reported.
On Wednesday, a French decide opened a proper investigation into Durov, suspecting him of complicity within the administration of an internet platform that permits illicit transactions, photographs of kid sexual abuse and drug trafficking. He’s additionally being investigated for alleged cash laundering and refusal to cooperate with judicial authorities.
Durov, who spent 4 days in police custody after being arrested Saturday at an airport close to Paris, was granted bail given that he pay 5 million euros ($5.6 million), report back to police twice every week and never go away France.
His arrest has fueled debate over the place free speech ends and regulation enforcement begins, and to what extent tech corporations needs to be held answerable for content material on social media. Almost one billion individuals use Telegram.
“It’s completely absurd to assume that the top of a social community might be concerned in prison acts that don’t concern him, both immediately or not directly,” lawyer David-Olivier Kaminski, who represents Durov in France, informed reporters, as reported by a number of native media.
“Telegram absolutely complies with European digital requirements,” he mentioned.
In France, being positioned below formal investigation doesn’t suggest guilt or essentially result in a trial, nevertheless it does point out that judges imagine there may be ample proof to proceed with the investigation. Investigations can final for years earlier than being despatched to trial or shelved.
Kaminski didn’t instantly reply to a Reuters request for remark.
French President Emmanuel Macron, identified to be an avid Telegram consumer, mentioned earlier this week that Durov’s arrest was “by no means a political resolution” and that the investigation had been determined by judicial authorities, not the federal government.
Macron had lunch with Durov in 2018 as a part of a sequence of conferences with tech entrepreneurs, a supply near the president mentioned, and Durov was granted French citizenship in 2021 below a uncommon process for high-profile people.