Telegram CEO: France Tried to Censor Moldova Elections

In a bombshell revelation, Telegram CEO Pavel Durov alleged that French intelligence services attempted to strong-arm him into censoring conservative Moldovan channels ahead of critical parliamentary elections.

Durov, who was arrested at a Paris airport last year, claims in a now-viral post on X that the pressure through French authorities while he was under judicial supervision in France. The Russian-born tech billionaire wrote that French authorities approached him through an intermediary roughly a year ago, demanding Telegram remove several Moldovan channels. While Telegram did take down some accounts that violated its policies, Durov alleged the plot thickened when the intermediary relayed a shady offer: French intelligence promised to “put in a good word” with the judge overseeing his case if expanded cooperation.

Durov, who holds both Russian and French citizenship, was arrested in August 2024 on charges tied to alleged crimes by Telegram users, including extremism and child abuse. Released on €5 million ($5.85 million) bail, the billionaire remains under judicial supervision.

“This was a blatant attempt to manipulate justice,” Durov wrote, slamming the move as either interference in his legal case or a ploy to meddle in Moldova’s elections. When a second list of “problematic” channels surfaced, the mogul said that nearly all were legitimate, with no violations of Telegram’s rules.

“We refused to comply,” the mogul said. “Telegram stands for free speech. We will not remove content for political reasons, and I’ll keep exposing every attempt to bully our platform.”

Durov’s allegations come as Moldova gears up for a heated parliamentary election, pitting President Maia Sandu’s pro-EU Action and Solidarity Party against the Patriotic Electoral Bloc.

In March, Durov was permitted to leave France in March and is believed to have returned to his residence in Dubai. The UAE government, where Durov became a citizen in 2021, is reportedly keeping a close eye on his high-profile legal saga.

Following his arrest, Telegram sent shockwaves through its user base by overhauling its privacy policies. The platform, once a staunch defender of user anonymity, announced it would hand over data like IP addresses and phone numbers to law enforcement if presented with valid legal orders. This marked a departure from its earlier stance, which limited data sharing to terrorism-related probes, and even then, Telegram claimed it had never complied.

In January, Durov told prosecutors that he “fully grasped the gravity” of the allegations against him, which include charges tied to criminal activity on Telegram, such as extremism and child abuse. That same month, the messaging giant, long celebrated for its ironclad privacy protections, ramped up cooperation with U.S. authorities.

Throughout much of 2024, Telegram kept data-sharing with U.S. law enforcement to a bare minimum, complying with just 14 requests affecting 108 users by September’s end. But in a significant shift, the last three months of the year saw a noticeable surge, with the number of impacted users soaring to 2,253.