Pavel Durov refused the content of Moldova’s election on Telegram

Telegram co-founder Pavel Durov announced that French Intelligence Services had asked him to censor the content-related content in Moldova in 2024 in exchange for saying “good things” to the judge who administered his trial, which he refused to do.

Said Durov The messaging platform Initially, some “clear” posts were lowered by the Telegram service terms, but refused to remove any additional content for political reasons. Durov wrote on a Sunday telegram Post:

“After a while, the Telegram team received a second list of so -called ‘problematic’ Moldovan channels. Unlike the first, almost all of these channels were legitimate and fully compliant with our policies.

Their similarity is the pronounced political positions that French and Moldovan governments dislike. We refused to act at this request, ”he continued.

The crypto industry rallies behind Durov following his August 2024 Arrest in Franceand the relevant development of his ongoing case, as the Battle for free speech Between the tech platforms and state governments that attempt to impose censorship police.

Related: Telegram founder Pavel Durov said the case is nowhere, Slams French Gov

French and European authorities had previously asked Telegram to conclude political content

In May 2025, Durov pointed to a previous incident in which French intelligence services forced the telegram to Censor of Romania election contentThat he also refused to do so.

“You cannot ‘defend democracy’ by destroying democracy. You cannot ‘resist the interruption of election’ by interfering with the election. You have the freedom of speech and fair elections – or you do not,” he write.

Following his arrest in 2024, drawing a widespread condemnation from the crypto community and human rights activists, he became critical to the French government and the direction of the European Union.