Telegram is accused of not being moderated well enough. Thus, the company and founder are complicit in serious international crime, the French authorities believe. On Saturday, the founder Pavel Durov was arrested by French police at an airport outside Paris. Durov is originally from Russia, but has French and Emirati citizenship. Before starting Telegram, he founded the Russian messaging service VKontakte. In 2014, he left Russia after refusing to share user information with Russian authorities. Now the arrest in France is getting a lot of attention in Russia. White paper airplanes were placed in a hedge outside the French embassy in Moscow on Sunday. The paper airplanes are reminiscent of the Telegram logo. Photo: AFP Russia’s embassy in France says it has not been given a reason for Durov’s arrest, or an opportunity to provide him with consular assistance. French authorities “have so far avoided cooperation on the matter”, writes the embassy on X. Please delete messages Telegram is widely used by Russian and Ukrainian officials, politicians and commentators, such as the so-called Russian military bloggers, in connection with the war in Ukraine. Pavel Durov in Jakarta, Indonesia in 2017. Photo: Tatan Syuflana / AP The editor of the state-controlled news channel RT, Margarita Simonjan, is now asking people to start deleting messages. – Anyone who has used Telegram for sensitive conversations should immediately delete the messages, she writes on X. She believes that France aims to get hold of Telegram’s encryption key. Russian President Vladimir Putin presents flowers to RT editor Margarita Simonjan in 2019. Photo: EVGENIA NOVOZHENINA / AFP The Russian Telegram channel Baza writes on Telegram that Russian government officials have been ordered to delete old Telegram messages. Baza has been accused of having ties to Russian security services. In the message, they refer to anonymous sources. The information has not been officially confirmed. Criticized by Russian leaders Russia itself limited access to Telegram in 2018. It was after they were denied access to the users’ encrypted messages, writes Reuters. It led to demonstrations in several Russian cities. Spokesperson for the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, says that the blocking was then met with great opposition from rights organisations. People protested against the blocking of Telegram in St. Petersburg, Russia in 2018. The man holds a picture depicting Pavel Durov as a saint. Photo: OLGA MALTSEVA / AFP – Do you think that this time they will demand Durov’s release, or will they keep quiet this time? writes Zakharova on X. Former president and prime minister Dmitry Medvedev, a supporter of the war in Ukraine, says that Durov made a misjudgment when he left Russia: – For all our common enemies, Durov is Russian – and therefore unpredictable and dangerous, Medvedev said, according to Reuters. – Nothing to hide Telegram is accused of not moderating messages well enough and of not cooperating with authorities to a sufficient extent. It also offers other services, such as temporary phone numbers. This makes the service complicit in serious offences, the French authorities believe. This is written by the French TV channel TF1. Among other things, drug trafficking, sharing of abuse material, terrorist activity and money laundering. TF1 writes that Pavel Durov was arrested at Le Bourget airport when his private plane arrived from Azerbaijan. The 39-year-old knew he was wanted in France and has avoided visiting the country, the channel claims. Telegram, for its part, claims that it follows EU law, and that the moderation of the service is in accordance with standards that apply in the industry. – It is absurd to claim that a platform, or its owner, is responsible for misuse of that platform, Telegram emphasizes in a statement on X. They also claim that they have almost one billion users. – Telegram CEO Pavel Durov has nothing to hide, they emphasize. Interested in abroad? Listen to the foreign affairs editor’s podcast: Published 26.08.2024, at 08.39
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