Telegram co-founder Pavel Durov claimed that French intelligence companies requested him to censor content material associated to the election in Moldova in 2024 in change for saying “good issues” to the choose overseeing his trial, which he declined to do.
Durov stated the messaging platform initially took down some posts that “clearly” violated Telegram’s phrases of service, however declined to take away any extra content material for political causes. Durov wrote in a Sunday Telegram publish:
“Shortly thereafter, the Telegram crew obtained a second listing of so-called ‘problematic’ Moldovan channels. In contrast to the primary, practically all of those channels have been respectable and absolutely compliant with our guidelines.
Their solely commonality was that they voiced political positions disliked by the French and Moldovan governments. We refused to behave on this request,” he continued.
The crypto trade rallied behind Durov following his August 2024 arrest in France, and the associated developments in his ongoing case, because the battle without spending a dime speech between tech platforms and state governments making an attempt to impose censorship polices unfolds.
Associated: Telegram founder Pavel Durov says case going nowhere, slams French gov
French and European authorities beforehand requested Telegram to censor political content material
In Might 2025, Durov pointed to a earlier incident through which French intelligence companies pressured Telegram into censoring Romanian election content material, which he additionally declined to do.
“You may’t ‘defend democracy’ by destroying democracy. You may’t ‘struggle election interference’ by interfering with elections. You both have freedom of speech and honest elections — otherwise you don’t,” he wrote.
Following his 2024 arrest, which drew widespread condemnation from the crypto neighborhood and human rights activists, he turned extremely vital of the French authorities and the path of the European Union.
France is inching towards societal collapse as a result of state censorship and the failed insurance policies of the present authorities, he warned in June.
He additionally acknowledged that Telegram will exit jurisdictions, together with France, earlier than compromising person privateness by handing over encryption keys or constructing a backdoor into the messaging platform for state surveillance.
Durov’s repeated warnings about state-led assaults in opposition to on-line free speech and privateness got here to a head in 2025, when an EU proposal to watch all chat messages, together with encrypted person communications, gained help from 19 member nations of the EU.
Journal: Did Telegram’s Pavel Durov commit a criminal offense? Crypto legal professionals weigh in
