Briefly
- Durov claims French intelligence demanded IP information and bans on political Telegram channels in Romania.
- France denies meddling, insisting its outreach centered on baby security and anti-terror efforts.
- The row exhibits rising issues over authoritarian state overreach on encrypted platforms.
Pavel Durov, founder and CEO of encrypted messaging platform Telegram, confirmed that France’s overseas intelligence service requested him to ban conservative Romanian voices forward of the Might 2025 presidential election, citing terrorism and baby security issues.
He refused.
“They met with me—allegedly to combat terrorism and baby porn,” Durov wrote on X on Monday.
Durov claims the latter topic “was by no means even talked about,” including that the intelligence company engaged in manipulative techniques, regardless of having different intentions.
“Their predominant focus was at all times geopolitics: Romania, Moldova, Ukraine,” Durov claimed.
The Directorate-Common for Exterior Safety (DGSE), France’s overseas intelligence company, allegedly sought IP logs for customers tied to political conversations, Durov stated.
“Falsely implying Telegram did nothing to take away baby porn is a manipulation tactic,” he added.
Durov’s claims had been first made public on Sunday morning, with French officers denying his allegations hours after.
“France categorically rejects these allegations and calls on everybody to train accountability and respect for Romanian democracy,” the nation’s Ministry for Europe and Overseas Affairs acknowledged on X.
Decrypt reached out to the ministry for additional remark. Telegram’s press workplace didn’t instantly return Decrypt’s request for feedback.
Election interference and democracy
When French intelligence head Nicolas Lerner approached Durov, the Telegram head claimed he “flatly refused.”
“You possibly can’t ‘defend democracy’ by destroying democracy. You possibly can’t ‘combat election interference’ by interfering with elections,” Durov stated, exposing the matter on his Telegram channel.
The interplay occurred someday in spring on the Salon des Batailles within the Hôtel de Crillon, Durov recalled.
The issues round election interference utilizing Telegram as an encrypted technique of communication heart on Romania’s lately concluded presidential elections, the place Nicusor Dan, a centrist, defeated George Simion, a nationalist who had publicly claimed to comply with President Donald Trump’s political model.
Durov claimed French intelligence had requested him to dam Romanian conservative voices within the run-up to the elections. France’s DGSE acknowledged assembly with Durov, however acknowledged these discussions solely centered on “stopping terrorist and baby pornography threats” on the platform.
Nonetheless, the Telegram founder isn’t any stranger to political scrutiny.
Final yr, he was arrested and detained over his alleged position in facilitating legal content material. The case stays unresolved.
The transfer sparked outrage throughout the tech business. Notcoin and Toncoin, two cryptocurrencies related to the Telegram platform through The Open Community, fell as a lot as 21% on the information.
Following Durov’s arrest, the platform promised to share particulars and cooperate with authorities.
It is price noting that Durov’s indictment got here at a time when Telegram was shifting to make crypto-backed monetary companies a core characteristic of its platform.
These ambitions had been hampered by their brush with authorities, Seth Goertz, a former U.S. Lawyer specializing in cryptocurrency and cybersecurity, instructed Decrypt on the time.
“The extra they go down that street, the extra they’re inviting scrutiny,” Goertz stated, commenting on Telegram’s crypto and finance ambitions.
Edited by Andrew Hayward
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