CEO Pavel Durov comments for first time on his arrest, says Telegram is ready to leave France

Telegram CEO and co-founder Pavel Durov commented for the first time on his arrest in France and said that he was interrogated by the police for four days after arriving in Paris, reports The Moscow Times.
He called the French authorities' claims "surprising" and said that Telegram complies with the law and it has a representative in the EU who responds to inquiries.
Also, Paris has many ways to contact Durov personally, and he has visited the French consulate in the United Arab Emirates more than once.
"A while ago, when asked, I personally helped them establish a hotline with Telegram to deal with the threat of terrorism in France," writes Durov.
According to him, “if a country is unhappy with an internet service, the established practice is to start legal action against the service itself,” instead of accusing its CEO of crimes committed by third parties.
“Sometimes we can’t agree with a country’s regulator on the right balance between privacy and security. In those cases, we are ready to leave that country. We've done it many times. When Russia demanded we hand over 'encryption keys' to enable surveillance, we refused — and Telegram got banned in Russia. When Iran demanded we block channels of peaceful protesters, we refused — and Telegram got banned in Iran," Durov gave examples.
He added that Telegram is ready to leave markets that are incompatible with its principles.
"(…) because we are not doing this for money," assures Durov.

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