Durov stated that, under the jurisdiction of the European Union Digital Services Act, Telegram would only provide IP addresses and phone numbers of suspected criminals. This affirmation came amid widespread criticism of France’s actions against encryption.
Telegram Founder Pavel Durov Declares Telegram Never Delivered Message Data to Authorities
Telegram, the cryptocurrency messaging protocol standard by default, is again in the eye of the storm, given its actions to defend user privacy from European authorities. In a recent post, Pavel Durov, founder of Telegram, strongly criticized France for its stance against encryption, highlighting the recent developments on the issue.
Durov noted that a law banning encryption passed the French Senate but was ultimately stopped by the National Assembly. In this context, Durov explained that if the law were finally passed, it would mean that all messaging apps operating in France would have to add a backdoor to allow authorities to access users’ messages.
Durov highlighted the dangers of this approach, stressing that this would open a dangerous option for third parties to take advantage of this feature. He declared
"It’s technically impossible to guarantee that only the police can access a backdoor. Once introduced, a backdoor can be exploited by other parties — from foreign agents to hackers."
He assessed that criminal groups would move to smaller apps, rendering the action of this approach unable to attack the problems it had been designed to tackle. Nonetheless, Durov noted that even with the current European Union regulation, Telegram had been respectful of its users’ privacy rights.
“In its 12-year history, Telegram has never disclosed a single byte of private messages,” Durov revealed. Furthermore, he mentioned that “in accordance with the EU Digital Services Act, if provided with a valid court order, Telegram would only disclose the IP addresses and phone numbers of criminal suspects — not messages.”
Before, Durov addressed several allegations about how his arrest in France led to Telegram’s swift compliance with EU privacy laws. Durov clarified that it was the French police who started acting according to the law after his arrest.