- The CEO of Telegram, Pavel Durov, said that Telegram prefers to leave a market to undermine encryption with wanderings
- This occurs while France and other governments put pressure for a legal stolen door for access to the police with private and encrypted messages
- Pavel Durov was arrested in August 2024 in France to, among other things, provide encrypted services to criminals
The CEO of Telegram, Pavel Durov, said that Telegram prefers to leave a market to “undermine encryption with wandering”, reaffirming business commitment to confidentiality and user security.
“Unlike some of our competitors, we do not negotiate privacy for market share. During its 12 years of history, Telegram has never disclosed a single byte of private messages,” Durov wrote in his public telegram channel on April 21, 2025.
Telegram’s commitment is a reaction to the generalized push for a legal means for the police to access the private and encrypted messages of French legislators and other European governments. It echoes a similar position shared previously by the secure messaging application signal and other suppliers.
As Durov explains in his article, France recently rejected a controversial stolen door provision which “would have made France the first in the world to strip its citizens of their right to privacy”.
The bill would have required all encrypted messaging applications and secure messaging services to decipher user data at the request of an authority, de facto creating a stolen door for the application of the law in the encryption of the software.
Cryptographers and other experts, however, have long argued that such a stolen door cannot be implemented without weakening the security infrastructure on which the encrypted services rest.
“Why? Because it is technically impossible to guarantee that only the police can access a stolen door. Once introduced, a stolen door can be exploited by other parties – from foreign to pirates,” Durov wrote.
Durov also pointed out how the weakening of encryption for each user of the fight against crime can be ineffective. Indeed, criminals could continue to use the best VPN services and small encrypted applications to cover their traces online.
The French authorities arrested Pavel Durov in August 2024, accusing him, among other things, of providing encrypted services to criminals. An investigation is currently underway.
“The battle is far from over”
Despite the victory last month in France, “the battle is far from over,” said Durov.
It is not only because, as Durov mentioned, the prefect of the Paris police once again pleaded for a stolen encryption door last week. More and more countries in Europe are considering a similar proposal.
Do you know?
While services love Signal And even Whatsapp are encrypted from start to finish by default – which means that all the messages you exchange on their platform are completely private between you and your receiver – only TelegramSecret cats are encrypted from start to finish. This means that you must actively select this feature to benefit from this additional level of confidentiality.
Finding a law and effective access to data for the application of laws is indeed the main objective of the new EU Commission strategy, Protect. Cost data is the main target.
Sweden also plans to apply a similar requirement for signal tastes, WhatsApp and Imessage. If successful, the new rules could come into force in March 2026.
In February, Apple was forced to kill its encryption function from start to finish in the United Kingdom following a government order to create a stolen encryption door to allow the order forces of user data.
Once considered a paradise for online privacy, an amendment to the Swiss surveillance Act could also risk secure encryption and anonymity on the Internet in the country.
Apart from Europe, Florida seeks to force all the social media platforms which allow the accounts of minors to provide a door stolen bearing of encryption for the police.
