The founder and CEO of the popular social media messaging platform Telegram, Pavel Durov, is currently facing charges for allowing criminal activities on the platform, marking his first public comment since his arrest in France last month.
In a post on Telegram, Durov vowed to strengthen oversight and management of the platform, while defending himself and the company, claiming his arrest was a mistake.
Durov wrote: "Accusing a CEO with laws from before the smartphone era for crimes committed by third parties on his platform is a wrong approach. Developing technology is hard enough. If innovators knew they could be personally liable for potential misuse of these tools, they wouldn't develop new tools."
Durov disputed the description of Telegram as "some kind of anarchist paradise," writing that the messaging service's "user base suddenly increased to 950 million, leading to growing pains that made our platform more susceptible to abuse."
According to the Associated Press, after four days of hearings, Durov, who holds dual citizenship in France and the UAE, was released on a 5 million euro bail and is currently required to report to French authorities twice a week.
