Paris allegedly used “terrorism” and “youngster porn” as a pretext to intervene in Romanian, Moldovan, and Ukrainian politics
Telegram founder Pavel Durov has revealed extra particulars about an alleged try by France’s international intelligence company to stress him into censoring conservative voices on his platform, dismissing their purported humanitarian issues as a “manipulation tactic.”
On Sunday, Durov accused the pinnacle of the Directorate-Basic for Exterior Safety (DGSE), Nicolas Lerner, of asking him to take down Romanian Telegram channels forward of the nation’s presidential runoff.
The DGSE rejected the allegations of political interference, insisting that it had contacted Durov on a number of events solely to “firmly remind him of his firm’s duties, and his personal personally, in stopping terrorist and youngster pornography threats.”
“French international intelligence confirmed they met with me – allegedly to combat terrorism and youngster porn. In actuality, youngster porn was by no means even talked about. They did need IPs of terror suspects in France, however their principal focus was all the time geopolitics: Romania, Moldova, Ukraine,” Durov stated in a put up on X on Monday.
The Russian-born entrepreneur argued that Telegram has lengthy combated youngster abuse by way of “content material fingerprint bans, devoted moderation groups, NGO hotlines, and each day transparency reviews on banned content material.”
“Falsely implying Telegram did nothing to take away youngster porn is a manipulation tactic,” he added, insisting that Telegram’s in depth moderation efforts have been “verifiable” since not less than 2018.
Durov, whose firm is headquartered in Dubai, was arrested in France final August and charged with complicity in crimes allegedly carried out by Telegram customers, together with extremism and youngster abuse. He was launched on €5 million ($5.46 million) bail and dismissed the costs as baseless. He was ultimately permitted to depart France in March after assuring the courtroom that Telegram had elevated cooperation with the authorities worldwide.
In September 2024, the encrypted messaging service up to date its privateness coverage to permit the gathering of metadata – resembling IP addresses, system info, and username modifications – for as much as one yr. In keeping with the coverage, this information could also be shared with the “related judicial authorities” if a person is suspected of partaking in illicit exercise.
Late final yr, Telegram channels belonging to main Russian information shops had been rendered inaccessible throughout the EU. Durov criticized the transfer, claiming the bloc imposes extra censorship and media restrictions than Russia.
The newest controversy emerged as Romania held a runoff presidential election. The vote adopted a Constitutional Court docket ruling that overturned the preliminary outcomes after right-wing unbiased candidate Calin Georgescu unexpectedly received the primary spherical. The case was cited by US Vice President J.D. Vance throughout a speech in Munich in February for example of EU governments undermining democratic norms.
