Pavel Durov refuses to censor the electoral content of Moldova on Telegram

The co-founder of Telegram, Pavel Durov, said that the French intelligence services had asked him to censor the content linked to the elections in Moldova in 2024 in exchange for saying “good things” to the judge supervising his trial, which he refused to do.

Durov said The messaging platform Initially, deleted certain articles which “clearly” violated the conditions of use of Telegram, but have refused to delete any additional content for political reasons. Durov wrote in a Sunday telegram job::

“Shortly after, the Telegram team received a second list of so -called” problematic “Moldovan channels. Unlike the first, almost all of these channels were legitimate and fully in accordance with our rules.

Their only common point was that they had expressed political positions hated by French and Moldovan governments. We refused to act on this request, “he continued.

The cryptographic industry joined Durov after his August 2024 Arrest in Franceand related developments in its current case, such as Fight for freedom of expression Between technological platforms and governments of states trying to impose censorship policies.

In relation: The founder of Telegram, Pavel Durov

French and European authorities have already asked the telegram to censor political content

In May 2025, Durov underlined a previous incident in which the French intelligence services put pressure on Telegram censor the Romanian electoral contentWhat he also refused to do.

“You cannot” defend democracy “by destroying democracy. You cannot” fight electoral interference “by interfering with the elections. You have either freedom of expression and fair elections – or you do not do it”, it wrote.

After his arrest in 2024, which led to a large condemnation of the cryptographic community and human rights activists, he became very critical of the French government and the direction of the European Union.