CEO of Telegram Pavlo Durov stated, that the company will leave the EU market if it is required to create backdoors to access users’ private correspondence.
In an address dated April 21, 2025, he criticized the European Union’s attempts to weaken end-to-end encryption, calling them a threat to basic human rights. According to Durov, the implementation of backdoors will create access opportunities not only for government agencies, but also for hackers and foreign special services, which poses a serious danger. He emphasized that criminals can still use little-known services or VPNs to bypass controls.
“Telegram would rather go out of business than undermine encryption with backdoors and violate basic human rights. Unlike some of our competitors, we don’t trade privacy for market share.” – Durov stated.
He also emphasized that Telegram has never provided access to the content of private conversations. Even in the case of legal requests, the company can only hand over the IP addresses and phone numbers of the suspects, but not the content of the messages. Durov called on users and human rights organizations to defend encryption as a key digital security tool.
Although the French parliament rejected a proposal to introduce backdoors in March, Durov drew attention to new EU initiatives, including the ProtectEU project, which he says pose a constant threat. The European Parliament also expresses concern about the possible undermining of cyber security.
At the same time, a trial against Durov continues in France, in which he is accused of facilitating illegal activities. If convicted, he could face up to 10 years in prison and a $550,000 fine.
We will remind that in March 2025 Pavlo Durov left France and returned to Dubai.
