Telegram founder and chief executive Pavel Durov on Thursday hit out at France for arresting and charging him last month over the publication of extremist and illegal content on the popular messaging app.
In a lengthy post on Telegram, his first comment since his arrest, Durov said it was “surprising” he was being held responsible for other people’s content.
“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 said.
He also lashed out at claims that “Telegram is some sort of anarchic paradise” as “absolutely untrue”, insisting: “We take down millions of harmful posts and channels every day.”
He denied accusations from France that Paris had not received responses from Telegram to its requests, saying he had personally helped French authorities “establish a hotline with Telegram to deal with the threat of terrorism in France”.
