For Pavel Durov, data privacy is a matter of life and death.
The founder and CEO of the messaging and social media app Telegram outlined his stance in a post on X on Sunday.
“I’d rather die — no third party has access to private messages on Telegram,” the Russian-born entrepreneur wrote in response to a comment that suggested he gave French authorities “backdoor” access to Telegram data.
Durov became a symbol of the struggle over user data privacy between social media companies and national governments after he was arrested by French authorities one year ago, in August 2024.
The CEO was detained for four days and accused of being complicit in allowing criminal activity to occur on Telegram. He has denied all the criminal charges laid against him.
Durov shared a four-part thread about the ongoing case on X on Sunday, the anniversary of his arrest.
“One year ago, the French police detained me for 4 days because some people I’d never heard of used Telegram to coordinate crimes,” Durov wrote in the thread.
“Arresting a CEO of a major platform over the actions of its users was not only unprecedented — it was legally and logically absurd,” he said.
French prosecutors charged Durov in late August 2024 with six crimes, including “complicity” in the distribution of child sexual abuse material and drug trafficking, arguing that he allowed illegal activity to flourish on Telegram while refusing to cooperate with authorities.
Durov said on X that the investigation against him “is still struggling to find anything that I or Telegram did wrong.”
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Telegram’s moderation practices align with industry standards, and it has “always responded to every legally binding request from France,” he added.
“The only outcome of my arrest so far has been massive damage to France’s image as a free country,” Durov said.
In his posts on Sunday, Durov said he does not have an appeal date and has to return to France every 14 days.
Durov set up Telegram in 2013. Before that, he founded the Russian social media network VKontakte, known as VK. He sold his stake in VK and fled Russia in 2014 after rejecting Kremlin pressure to turn over the data of Ukrainian protest leaders.
Telegram has about 1 billion active users globally. The influential messaging platform has grown to be a primary source of information in the war in Ukraine and Russia. It has been called out by critics and researchers for refusing to remove graphic, misleading, and sometimes criminal content.
Durov and Telegram did not respond to requests for comment from Business Insider.
