Durov said French prosecutors flouted established practice in prosecuting him as an individual, instead of the company.
In his first public comments since being arrested in France, the founder and CEO of Telegram, Pavel Durov, said the charges against him are misguided and denied the messaging app is an “anarchic paradise.”
Durov was arrested on Aug. 24 when he arrived at Le Bourget airport, in Paris, on his private jet having flown in from his home in Dubai.He was detained and interrogated by French prosecutors before being charged on Aug. 29 with a series of criminal offenses, and released on condition he does not leave France.
Telegram is an app that allows for one-on-one conversations, group chats, and “channels” that can involve hundreds of people.
Unlike Meta’s WhatsApp, which has a limit of 1,024, Telegram’s group chats allow up to 200,000 people.
Critics have claimed that these group chats have been responsible for spreading disinformation.
Russia-born Durov, writing on his Telegram account on Sept. 5, said, “The claims in some media that Telegram is some sort of anarchic paradise are absolutely untrue. We take down millions of harmful posts and channels every day.”
“We have urgent hotlines with NGOs to process urgent moderation requests