Telegram founder Pavel Durov has spoken out against a French bill to introduce backdoors for law enforcement into messengers. According to him, Telegram would rather leave the market than compromise encryption with backdoors and «violate basic human rights».
Telegram founder Pavel Durov has spoken out against a French bill to introduce backdoors for law enforcement into messengers. According to him, Telegram would rather leave the market than compromise encryption with backdoors and «violate basic human rights».
This is Article 8 of the proposed law on combating illicit drug trafficking, which would require all encrypted messaging apps and secure email services to decrypt user data upon request by French authorities.
«Last month, France almost banned encryption. The Senate passed a law requiring messaging apps to install a backdoor to allow police access to private messages. Fortunately, it was rejected by the National Assembly. However, 3 days ago, the Prefect of Police of Paris came out in support of it again,» Durov wrote.
He added that if such a law were passed, France would become «the first country in the world to deprive its citizens of their right to privacy.» According to the Telegram founder, it is technically impossible to guarantee that only the police will have access to the «backdoor».
«Once implemented, the backdoor can be used by other parties, from foreign agents to hackers. As a result, the private messages of all law-abiding citizens can be compromised», — says Pavel Durov.
This is agreed upon by cryptographers and other experts, who say it is impossible to create an encryption backdoor that could only be used for the right purposes.
«A backdoor only for the good guys is a dangerous illusion. Weakening encryption for law enforcement inevitably creates vulnerabilities that cybercriminals and hostile foreign actors can — and will — exploit», — said Matthias Pfau, CEO of encrypted email service Tuta Mail.
Durov believes that if the main encrypted applications were weakened by a backdoor, cybercriminals could still communicate securely through dozens of smaller applications — and they would be even harder to track thanks to the VPN.
«That’s why, as I said before, Telegram would rather exit the market than compromise encryption with backdoors and violate basic human rights. Unlike some of our competitors, we don’t trade privacy for market share. In its 12-year history, Telegram has never disclosed a single byte of private messages. In accordance with the EU Digital Services Act, if there is an appropriate court decision, Telegram only discloses IP addresses and phone numbers of suspected criminals, but not messages,» said the Telegram founder.
He added that in April, the European Commission proposed an initiative similar to the French bill to add backdoors to messengers.
Recall that last month, French law enforcement agencies allowed Telegram founder Pavel Durov to temporarily leave the country, where he is accused of numerous offenses related to allegedly aiding organized crime.
He was detained at Le Bourget airport near Paris in August 2024 and charged with a number of violations related to the fact that his Telegram app is widely used by criminals and does not cooperate with law enforcement.
