Telegram CEO Stands Firm on Encryption, Threatens to Exit France

(MENAFN) Telegram CEO Pavel Durov has stated the app will leave France if authorities continue pressing for a mandate allowing access to encrypted messages.

“Telegram would rather exit a market than undermine encryption with backdoors and violate basic human rights,” Durov wrote on X Monday.

Durov praised the French National Assembly for its “wise” decision to reject a law last month that sought to ban encryption, which he argued would have made France the first country to “strip its citizens of their right to privacy.”

The issue resurfaced after Paris’s Police Prefect advocated for it again on Friday, prompting Durov's response.

“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. As a result, the private messages of all law-abiding citizens can get compromised,” he wrote.

Durov argued the proposed law would not help stop drug trafficking, as criminals could still use other apps that lack backdoors.

He emphasized that under the EU Digital Services Act, Telegram would only share IP addresses and phone numbers of suspects, not messages, when given a valid court order.

Durov also pointed to a similar proposal by the European Commission, warning that “no country is immune to the slow erosion of freedoms.”

“We must keep explaining to lawmakers that encryption isn’t built to protect criminals — it protects the privacy and safety of ordinary people. Losing that protection would be tragic,” Durov concluded.

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