Pavel Durov: French intelligence agencies once pressured for content censorship, Telegram will remain committed to freedom of speech

BlockBeats News, September 28, Telegram founder Pavel Durov tweeted, "About a year ago, when I was detained in Paris after being arrested, the French intelligence agency contacted me through an intermediary, asking me to help the Moldovan government censor certain Telegram channels before the presidential election. After reviewing the channels flagged by the French and Moldovan authorities, we found that some of them clearly violated our rules, so we removed them. The intermediary then informed me that, in return for our cooperation, the French intelligence agency would 'speak well' of me to the judge who ordered my arrest last August. This is unacceptable on multiple levels. If the agency did indeed approach the judge, it constitutes interference with judicial proceedings. If the agency falsely claimed to have contacted the judge, then it is using my legal situation in France to influence the political situation in Eastern Europe—we have observed a similar pattern in Romania."

"Shortly after, the Telegram team received a second so-called 'problematic' list of Moldovan channels. Unlike the first list, almost all of these channels were legitimate and fully complied with our rules. Their only commonality was that they expressed opinions disliked by the French and Moldovan governments. We rejected this request. Telegram is committed to freedom of speech. I will continue to expose any attempts to force Telegram to censor our platform."

On August 25, 2024, Telegram CEO Pavel Durov was arrested by French police after landing at Le Bourget Airport in northern Paris. French police stated that the reason for Pavel Durov's arrest was the presence of drug trafficking, black market firearms, and child pornography content on the Telegram platform.