According to Pavel Durov, French intelligence services tried to pressure him into blocking Moldovan opposition channels, offering assistance with his legal cases in France. Earlier, he said that French intelligence chief Nicolas Lerner had asked him to restrict conservative outlets in Romania ahead of elections, but Telegram refused, stressing that it does not compromise in Russia, Belarus, or Iran—and would not make an exception for Europe.
French intelligence services attempted to pressure Pavel Durov by offering support in his legal proceedings in France in exchange for blocking opposition Moldovan Telegram channels. The Telegram founder wrote about this on X.
He said that while in France, intelligence officials approached him with a request to limit the activity of several opposition channels in Moldova. "This was unacceptable for several reasons. If the agency had indeed appealed to a judge, it amounted to an attempt to interfere with judicial proceedings. If not, and they merely claimed to have done so, then they were exploiting my legal situation in France to influence political events in Eastern Europe—a pattern we had also observed in Romania," he noted.
After reviewing the initial list provided by French and Moldovan authorities, the Telegram team identified several channels that did in fact violate the platform’s rules and removed them.
However, a second list of “problematic” channels soon followed, which, as Durov emphasized, consisted almost entirely of legitimate outlets fully compliant with the rules. "Their only common feature was that they expressed political positions unfavorable to the French and Moldovan governments. We refused to comply with this request," he wrote.
Against Its Own Principles
According to Pavel Durov, French Intelligence Demands Transparency from Telegram—While Secretly Pushing for Censorship
