Telegram CEO says he was ‘surprised’ by his arrest and questioning

Telegram CEO Pavel Durov returned to the messaging platform on Thursday, writing in a lengthy post that he was surprised to be arrested and questioned by French authorities less than two weeks ago as part of an investigation that has sparked debate about free speech and criminal activity online.

Durov was arrested at a Paris airport amid an investigation into suspected crimes related to criminal activity on Telegram, according to French prosecutors. He was later released from police custody on bail set at $5.56 million as the investigation progressed.

Telegram, which Durov says has 950 million users, is used both as an everyday messaging tool and as a way to circumvent authoritarian governments – but it is also favored by white supremacist groups and ISIS.

Prosecutors are also investigating Durov over alleged “acts of violence” against his child in Switzerland.

In a Telegram post on Thursday, his first since his arrest, Durov admitted that a “sharp increase” in the number of app users had caused problems that made it easier for criminals to abuse the platform.

“That’s why my personal goal is to make sure that we significantly improve the situation in this regard. We have already started this process internally and I will share with you details about our progress soon,” Durov said.

Durov said the app aims to protect users in authoritarian regimes. Durov noted that the app refused to hand over “encryption keys” to Russia, which led to a ban in that country. The app was also banned in Iran after it refused to block channels used by protesters, he said.

“We are ready to leave markets that do not comply with our principles because we are not doing it for the money,” Durov said, adding that the app left them in cases where it “could not reach an agreement with the country’s regulator on the right balance between privacy and security.”

Durov also questioned the decision of the French authorities to hold him personally liable.

“If a country is unhappy with an internet service, the accepted practice is to bring legal proceedings against the service itself,” he said. “Using pre-smartphone laws to accuse a CEO of crimes committed by third parties on the platform he manages is a flawed approach.”

– CNN’s Antonella Francini, Emmanuel Miculita, Anna Chernova and Zahid Mahmood contributed to this report.

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