In short
- Durov has referred to as his August 2024 arrest “legally and logically absurd,” claiming French police detained him over crimes by customers he’d by no means heard of.
- The Telegram CEO should report back to French authorities each 14 days regardless of ongoing investigation discovering no wrongdoing by him or his platform.
- Durov stays beneath judicial supervision in France, required to report each two weeks, with no attraction date but set.
Telegram CEO Pavel Durov referred to as his arrest by French police “legally and logically absurd” on Sunday, precisely one 12 months after being detained for 4 days over alleged prison exercise on his messaging platform.
In an X thread posted one 12 months after his arrest at Le Bourget airport exterior Paris, the 40-year-old tech mogul revealed he should nonetheless return to France each 14 days with “no attraction date in sight.”
Since his launch on €5 million (US$5.8 million) bail, Durov has been permitted to journey briefly to Dubai, the place Telegram is headquartered, however stays beneath judicial supervision.
Durov was initially detained on expenses associated to alleged prison exercise on his messaging platform, which prosecutors claimed he didn’t average adequately.
“To date, the one consequence of my arrest has been huge injury to France’s picture as a free nation,” he tweeted Sunday.
“This authorized motion in opposition to a platform’s CEO over consumer actions highlights a elementary rigidity between legacy authorized frameworks and the core Web3 precept of particular person sovereignty,” HashKey Group chief analyst Jeffrey Ding instructed Decrypt.
The case prompts a “broader, world dialogue” on the steadiness between innovation and “regulatory oversight” within the digital ecosystem, he mentioned.
Durov’s arrest instantly impacted crypto markets, inflicting Toncoin (TON), the native token of The Open Community blockchain, intently affiliated with Telegram, to plummet as information broke.
French authorities detained Durov on expenses together with complicity in distributing youngster pornography, narcotics gross sales, and arranged fraud, saying Telegram’s encryption instruments have been getting used with out correct authorities authorization.
The Nationwide Anti-Fraud Workplace accused the platform of refusing to cooperate with regulation enforcement requests and failing to average prison content material.
Durov’s detention drew condemnation from Tesla CEO Elon Musk and ex-NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, compelling President Emmanuel Macron to defend France’s file on free expression.
Nevertheless, Durov pushed again in opposition to these accusations, claiming the French police had made procedural errors that exposed their very own incompetence, and “they might have realized the proper process just by googling it or asking.”
The tech govt mentioned Telegram was straightforward to succeed in, saying they’ve “all the time responded to each legally binding request from France.”
He added that his platform’s “moderation practices align with trade requirements,” declaring “we’ll hold preventing—and we’ll win.”
Kadan Stadelmann, CTO at Komodo Platform, instructed Decrypt that “governments in Europe are waging an assault on privateness by coercing compliance from platforms that provide customers encryption and consumer autonomy.”
He famous that “Russia and Iran banned Telegram for not handing over surveillance keys,” pointing to a sample the place “governments need to scare builders out of growing encrypted know-how that undermines their centralized management.”
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