Telegram responds to CEO Pavel Durov’s arrest, says it has ‘nothing to hide’

Telegram’s strong reaction: The encrypted messaging app has come down heavily on the arrest of its chief executive officer Pavel Durov. It said Durov has nothing to hide from the authorities and that “it is absurd to claim that a platform or its owner are responsible for abuse of that platform.” It added that it complies with the European Union laws, including the Digital Services Act, which the company has been accused of violating by giving its users a platform to spread criminal activities such as extortion.

“Telegram CEO Pavel Durov has nothing to hide and travels frequently in Europe,” said Telegram in a post on its public channel. The sharp reaction came after Durov’s arrest at the Le Bourget airport in France when he was embarking on a flight to Azerbaijan. “Almost a billion users globally use Telegram as a means of communication and as a source of viral information. We’re awaiting a prompt resolution of this situation,” said the WhatsApp rival with over 900 million active users.

Why was Pavel Durov arrested?

The 39-year-old tech billionaire was arrested late on Saturday in France and has been in custody as part of a preliminary police investigation into his role in the spread of crime and related activities on Telegram. He is also being probed for not gatekeeping the content on the platform, which uses end-to-end encryption to safeguard chat contents against any attempts at infiltration. According to Reuters, a cybersecurity gendarmerie unit and France’s national anti-fraud unit are leading the investigation. In its response to the ongoing probe, Telegram said, “We’re awaiting a prompt resolution of this situation. Telegram is with you all.”

Who said what?

Durov’s arrest also drew attention from several high-profile personalities, including the tech billionaire and the world’s richest person, Elon Musk. He termed his arrest as a violation to free speech, while posting a Grok-generated message with a sarcastic caption that reads: “Check out this ad for the First Amendment. It is very convincing.” He has also interacted with several posts to voice against the arrest.

Musk was joined by former American National Security Agency’s intelligence contractor and whistleblower, Edward Snowden. “The arrest of@Durov is an assault on the basic human rights of speech and association. I am surprised and deeply saddened that Macron has descended to the level of taking hostages as a means for gaining access to private communications. It lowers not only France, but the world,” he said in one of his several posts on the same topic.