The founding father of a tech firm says French authorities are placing innovation in danger in his first public feedback since his arrest.
Telegram CEO Pavel Durov has criticised French authorities for submitting “misguided” prison costs towards him as a substitute of approaching his firm together with his considerations in his first public feedback since his arrest.
In a publish on Telegram on Thursday, Durov stated it was “surprising” to be taught that he may very well be held personally responsible for unlawful actions carried out by others on his social media and messaging platform.
“If a rustic is dissatisfied with an web service, the established follow is to provoke authorized motion towards the service itself,” the Russian-born tech entrepreneur wrote.
“Utilizing legal guidelines from the pre-smartphone period to accuse a CEO of crimes dedicated by third events on the platform he manages is the fallacious method.”
Durov stated Telegram has an official consultant within the European Union who makes use of a publicly accessible electronic mail deal with and that French authorities had “quite a few methods” to speak with him personally.
France’s dealing with of the case dangers stifling technological innovation, he stated.
“Growing know-how is difficult sufficient,” he wrote. “No innovator will ever construct new instruments if he is aware of he might be held personally responsible for potential abuse of these instruments.”
Durov, a citizen of Russia, France, the United Arab Emirates and St Kitts and Nevis, additionally criticised strategies that Telegram is a “lawless paradise”.
“We take away hundreds of thousands of dangerous posts and channels on daily basis,” he wrote.
Nonetheless, Durov acknowledged that there are voices arguing that Telegram’s efforts “are usually not sufficient.”
“The abrupt enhance within the variety of Telegram customers to 950 [million] “prompted development issues that made it simpler for criminals to abuse our platform,” he wrote.
“That’s why I’ve made it my private aim to verify we considerably enhance issues on this regard. We’ve already began that course of internally and I’ll be sharing extra particulars about our progress with you very quickly.”
French authorities arrested Durov final month as a part of an investigation into prison exercise at Telegram and the platform’s alleged lack of cooperation with regulation enforcement.
Final week, judicial authorities positioned the 39-year-old tech founder below formal investigation on 12 costs, together with offering crypto companies to criminals and complicity in working a web-based platform that allows illicit transactions, little one sexual abuse pictures, drug trafficking and fraud.
Durov’s arrest and indictment have reignited long-standing debates in regards to the steadiness between free speech, privateness and on-line hurt management.
Tech founders and web freedom advocates, together with X proprietor Elon Musk and whistleblower Edward Snowden, have condemned the case, calling it a risk to free speech.
Russia has additionally expressed concern and challenged French authorities to offer “strong proof” to justify the accusations.
