French officials pressured Telegram to censor Moldova election posts: Durov

Telegram co-founder Pavel Durov said that French intelligence pressured Telegram into censoring political content, which he refused to do.

Telegram co-founder Pavel Durov claimed that French intelligence services asked him to censor content related to the election in Moldova in 2024 in exchange for saying “good things” to the judge overseeing his trial, which he declined to do.

Durov said the messaging platform initially took down some posts that “clearly” violated Telegram’s terms of service, but declined to remove any additional content for political reasons. Durov wrote in a Sunday Telegram post:

Their only commonality was that they voiced political positions disliked by the French and Moldovan governments. We refused to act on this request,” he continued.

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