Governments pressuring digital platforms has drawn growing scrutiny, and Telegram’s founder Pavel Durov has now raised concerns about political influence. He shared on Telegram and social media platform X on Sept. 28 that French intelligence contacted him through an intermediary about a year ago while he was in Paris, requesting the removal of Moldovan Telegram channels ahead of Moldova’s presidential elections.

Durov stressed:

This was unacceptable on several levels.

“If the agency did in fact approach the judge — it constituted an attempt to interfere in the judicial process. If it did not, and merely claimed to have done so, then it was exploiting my legal situation in France to influence political developments in Eastern Europe — a pattern we have also observed in Romania,” Durov detailed. He explained that Telegram initially removed a few channels that broke its policies, but emphasized that the intermediary linked compliance to potential improvements in his legal situation in France following his arrest in August last year.

The Telegram founder was detained in France in August 2024 as part of an investigation into Telegram’s alleged use for criminal activities. French authorities accused him of complicity in crimes, including drug trafficking and child sexual exploitation material distribution, due to Telegram’s perceived lack of moderation and failure to cooperate with judicial requests. Durov was released on bail and placed under judicial supervision, though he has called the case “legally and logically absurd,” arguing that a platform’s CEO should not be responsible for users’ actions. The situation has sparked debate over digital freedom and online platform responsibilities.

Durov also described in his Sept. 28 post a second list of channels flagged for removal, which he said were largely compliant with Telegram’s policies. “Unlike the first, nearly all of these channels were legitimate and fully compliant with our rules,” he said, elaborating:

Their only commonality was that they voiced political positions disliked by the French and Moldovan governments. We refused to act on this request.

“Telegram is committed to freedom of speech and will not remove content for political reasons. I will continue to expose every attempt to pressure Telegram into censoring our platform,” Durov concluded. While some observers caution that limited moderation could enable disinformation, others view Telegram’s position as a safeguard for open debate in regions where governments maintain strong control over traditional media.

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