France Telegram Case Turns 2: Is Durov Being Prosecuted for Saying No?
France’s Telegram case turned two years outdated on Monday. Founder Pavel Durov marked the date by accusing governments of punishing the app for refusing censorship calls for.
The French legal investigation opened in August 2024 stays energetic. Durov argues the case has weakened as proof about Telegram’s moderation report has accrued.
How France’s Telegram Case Began
French police held Durov for three days in 2024, the longest interval allowed earlier than expenses. He describes the transfer as a primary, with a platform government accused over offenses dedicated by customers.
Restrictions on him have since loosened. France lifted his travel restrictions in November 2025, ending a yr of necessary police check-ins.
However, the probe itself by no means closed. French prosecutors have examined whether or not Telegram enabled legal exercise by failing to cooperate with lawful requests. Durov now says two years of information undercut its premise. Telegram, he argues, neither moderated worse than rivals nor cooperated much less with authorities.
A Pattern Durov Says Repeats Across Countries
Durov says officers in a number of international locations quietly requested Telegram for political favors, together with censorship and surveillance he considers unlawful. Refusal, he argues, triggers campaigns from native media and advocacy teams.
He has beforehand described requests tied to elections in Romania and Moldova. He and Elon Musk have individually accused European regulators of utilizing child safety as leverage.
Telegram’s safety web page experiences 23.6 million teams and channels blocked this yr. Of these, 370,777 have been tied to youngster abuse materials and 164,099 to terrorist content material.
Meanwhile, Durov factors to platforms he says escape comparable scrutiny. The Tech Transparency Project, a company accountability watchdog, reviewed Meta’s advert library this month. It discovered greater than 50 paid ads carrying AI-generated youngster sexual abuse materials.
What Comes Next for the French Case
Durov expects the investigation to finally face questions of its personal. He factors to home pushback in opposition to President Emmanuel Macron’s on-line guidelines.
That pushback is now seen in French courts. Judges have begun testing how far the federal government can limit platforms earlier than free expression protections apply.
France’s Constitutional Council struck down a ban on social media for youngsters beneath 15. The August 14 decision cited freedom of expression.
Durov has made similar accusations against Russia, which charged him with terrorism offenses in July.
GRAM, the Telegram-linked token previously often called Toncoin, traded around $1.47 on Monday, down roughly 3% in 24 hours.
Whether French prosecutors transfer towards trial or quietly wind the case down might change into clearer within the months forward.
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