Telegram CEO promises to take on crime, says platform is not perfect

Telegram co-founder and CEO Pavel Durov says he will make it his ‘personal goal’ to combat criminal activities on its platform, but he admits finding the right balance between privacy and security isn’t easy.

For the past few weeks, Telegram has been feeling the heat from international law enforcement agencies.

The South Korean police announced it launched a preliminary investigation into Telegram because the authorities suspect the instant messaging service platform plays a big part in the distribution of deepfake porn videos in the country.

The French authorities arrested Durov at the end of August, because his platform failed to respond to investigation requests into cybercrime and financial fraud on Telegram. After four days, the co-founder and CEO was released from custody, but still isn’t allowed to leave the country, because the investigation is still ongoing.

Last week, he spoke out for the first time since his arrest.

In a statement, Durov says he was surprised that he got arrested. Telegram has an official representative in the EU, who law enforcement agencies can address if they have an enforcement request. Charging a CEO with crimes that are committed by third-parties, he says, is “a misguided approach”.

In his testimony, Durov points out that it’s hard to establish the right balance between privacy and security. “You have to reconcile privacy laws with law enforcement requirements and local laws with EU laws. You have to take into account technological limitations. As a platform, you want your processes to be consistent globally while also ensuring they are not abused in countries with weak rule of law,” he says.

Sometimes, when Telegram doesn’t agree with national regulators, the messaging platform has decided to leave the country. Telegram did so when Russia demanded encryption keys for surveillance purposes. Or when Iran insisted on blocking accounts of peaceful protesters.

“All of that does not mean Telegram is perfect. Even the fact that authorities could be confused about where to send requests is something that we should improve. But the claims in some media that Telegram is some sort of anarchic paradise are absolutely untrue,” Durov stresses.

Nevertheless, the CEO made it his “personal goal to ensure we significantly improve things in this regard.” The company started this process internally and will soon share more details on its progress.

“I hope that the events of August will result in making Telegram, and the social networking industry as a whole, safer and stronger,” Durov concludes.