Telegram CEO Pavel Durov defended himself Thursday in his first public comments since being charged in France last week for “complicity” with criminal activity taking place on the popular messaging app.
Durov argued in a post on Telegram that the “established practice” when a country is unhappy with an internet service is to bring legal action against the company, not the CEO.
“Using laws from the pre-smartphone era to charge a CEO with crimes committed by third parties on the platform he manages is a misguided approach,” he wrote.
“Building technology is hard enough as it is,” he continued. “No innovator will ever build new tools if they know they can be personally held responsible for potential abuse of those tools.”
The Telegram founder and CEO, who is accused of failing to respond to law enforcement’s requests for information, also suggested that French authorities had numerous ways to reach him and that his company was reachable via its European Union (EU) representative.
“We’ve been committed to engaging with regulators to find the right balance [between privacy and security],” Durov added. “Yes, we stand by our principles: our experience is shaped by our mission to protect our users in authoritarian regimes. But we’ve always been open to dialogue.”
However, he also acknowledged that Telegram is not perfect.
“We hear voices saying that it’s not enough,” Durov said. “Telegram’s abrupt increase in user count to 950M caused growing pains that made it easier for criminals to abuse our platform. That’s why I made it my personal goal to ensure we significantly improve things in this regard.”
Durov was detained at Paris-Le Bourget Airport late last month and questioned for several days by French authorities. He was formally indicted by a French judge last week and released from custody after posting €5 million, or about $5.5 million, for bail.
He is accused of “complicity” in administering an online platform that enables the distribution of child sex abuse material, illicit transactions, money laundering, organized fraud and drug trafficking.