Toncoin (TON) Surges 7% After Telegram CEO Pavel Durov Slams France For ”Misguided Approach”

Toncoin (TON) surged more than 7% after Telegram CEO Pavel Durov slammed France for its ”misguided approach” to investigating illicit activity following his arrest in the country.

“If a country is unhappy with an internet service, the established practice is to start a legal action against the service itself,” Durov said in a Sept. 5 message in his official Telegram channel. “Using laws from the pre-smartphone era to charge a CEO with crimes committed by third parties on the platform he manages is a misguided approach.”

TON traded at $4.87 as of 2:45 a.m. EST after a 7% pump following Durov’s first comments since his arrest.

Durov, a Russian-French billionaire who is the founder and CEO of the Telegram messaging app, was arrested at Le Bourget Airport outside of Paris, France, on Aug. 25.

A warrant for his arrest was issued by a unit of the French National Police because of Telegram’s lack of moderation and cooperation with the police in matters including drug trafficking and pedocriminal offences, reported French news outlet TF1Info .

Pavel Durov Surprised By The Arrest

The arrest in France caught Durov by surprise. He said Telegram has a legal representative in the region who is responsible for all regulatory requests and enquiries, and its email address is also publicly available and can be retrieved through a Google search.

In addition to the company’s legal representative, Durov said that he is also a frequent guest at the French consulate in Dubai. “A while ago, when asked, I personally helped them establish a hotline with Telegram to deal with the threat of terrorism in France,” he said.

Durov criticized the French authorities for charging him personally for activities that took place on Telegram. He warned that authorities charging software developers for third-party abuse of their platforms could stifle innovation.

“No innovator will ever build new tools if they know they can be personally held responsible for potential abuse of those tools,” he said.

Difficulty In Finding The Right Balance Between Privacy And Security

Durov acknowledged that Telegram is not perfect, and that working with authorities to find the balance between security and privacy is not always easy. He added that he has made it his “personal goal” to prevent the handful of people who are abusing Telegram from affecting the future of the messaging app’s more than 950 million users.

Durov said, however, that in cases where authorities and Telegram can’t reach a compromise, the company “is ready to leave that country.”

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