Pavel Durov has now made his first public statement after France handed out the preliminary charges against him and his instant messaging platform, Telegram, following his recent arrest. The Russia-born French executive was recently released by French authorities following his arrest after landing at the Le Bourget airport for allegedly allowing criminal activity on Telegram.
The latest changes on Telegram now focus on moderating private chats in the platform after previously leaving these alone, following the events of Durov's arrest.
Pavel Durov Speaks Up Following Preliminary Charges
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It has been more than a week since Pavel Durov was handed the preliminary charges filed against him and is out on a $5.5 million bail, and now, the CEO has made his statement regarding the issue according to the Associated Press.
Durov shared this in his latest post on X which provides a short version of his statement. The long version was madeavailable on the executive's Telegram channel. Here, Durov addressed what had happened over the past two weeks, claiming that Telegram has worked closely with the authorities in addressing their needs.
Moreover, it was revealed by Durov that they recently set up a Telegram hotline that would help France in an ongoing terrorism threat. Additionally, the CEO also addressed that there is an EU representative from the company who coordinates regarding inquiries or issues.
Furthermore, Durov claimed that as an innovator, he does not approve of abuse using his tools.
As stated in his channel post, Durov and Telegram are now taking a more proactive approach towards moderation on the platform. According to Telegram's CEO, it is now his "personal goal" to improve things and soon share more details about its changes.
Moreover, the platform's FAQs (via The Verge) saw the removal of private chats' exemption from moderation requests, with these now subject to takedown requests which Telegram's team would process.
Pavel Durov and Telegram's Activities
Back in late June, a viral interview with Pavel Durov regarding his "solo" run as Telegram's product manager and only having about 30 engineers working on the platform already sparked security issues. This was because this is a platform that has over 950 million users relying on its services for instant messaging needs, with experts calling it a 'security nightmare.'
Almost two months later, Durov was arrested upon landing in France aboard his private jet, and this was because of the criminal activities that took place under his watch on Telegram. Apart from a massive scandal that erupted during this time, it also caused Durov's open-network crypto, Toncoin, to crash by as much as 20 percent following his arrest.
Telegram is known for its worldwide service which offered users fast and secure messaging, but it has since left private chats out of moderation, and this added a target on the company since earlier this year.
