Telegram founder Pavel Durov is still trying to figure out why he was confined to France in August, though motives could be political and tied to the efforts of the authorities to break the alleged illicit activity on the messaging platform.
That’s one of the main takeaways from Durov’s interview with Tucker Carlson, led on Tuesday on YouTube.
In his first interview from his August 24, 2024, Arrest At Bourget Airport outside Paris, Durov said French authorities appeared to be interested in how Telegram works – “as if a kind of mystery,” he stopped.
“(W) e’re a big company, that we have a big four accounting firm, we work with the largest financial institutions (…) we spend millions of dollars every quarter in legal compliance (…) to make sure we don’t violate laws anywhere and we run in nearly 200 countries,” Durov said.
“So it’s confusing for me to be jailed in Paris and find out that Telegram has done wrong or not processing certain requests,” he said.
Durov has been accused of six charges Through French prosecutors in August 2024 for alleged complexity in criminal activity, who refused to respond to France authorities, money laundering, criminal organization, providing crypto services without proper expression, and participation in the spread of forbidden content that is said to be facilitated by limited telegram moderation. At this time, prosecutors said he could face up to 10 years in prison.
“When I learned more about it, I realized that we had done nothing wrong,” he said, as the French authorities did not comply with the appropriate process of finding information from Durov or Telegram.
When Carlson hit Durov on charges against him and why his movements remained restrained, Durov replied, “I’m still trying to find out, be honest. I’m confused.” He continued:
“At first, they said, ‘Oh, you failed to respond to our legal requests, and that’s why you’re so complicated.’ But first of all, it is not true that we do not respond to legal binding legal requests, and secondly, this is a immense interpretation of complexity even for the French (…) legal and judicial system.
Durov’s lawyers described his removal as “not yet.”
Related: Ton Society celebrates Pavel Durov leaving France as a free speech win
Tucker Carlson: The arrest of Telegram is a gesture of “shame”
During the interview, Carlson criticized not only the fact that Durov was confined, but the way in which it was practiced.
“Obviously, they came out to embarrass you,” Carlson said.
Durov said, noting that his lawyers told him that the prosecutor’s office usually operated outside the public eye and rarely issued press statements. That was “not the case with me,” he added.
As Carlson questioned the silence of the so -called civil libertarians, the ton community reported That more than 9 million Telegram users signed a letter calling Durov’s release.
While talking to Carlson marked Durov’s first public interview since he was arrested, he had ruined his silence Shortly after the September incident, saying that the Telegram was ready to come out of countries that did not align with the Platform’s Plantor Plans on Free Speech.
Telegram has since grown on one of the largest messaging platforms in the world, reaching a billion monthly active users in March, According to in industry data.
Magazine: Was Telegram’s Pavev Durov committed a crime? Crypto lawyers weigh
