PANews reported on April 21 that Telegram founder Pavel Durov posted on the official TG channel that France almost banned encryption technology last month. The Senate passed a law requiring communication applications to set up backdoors for police to access private information. Fortunately, the law was rejected by the National Assembly. However, three days ago, the Paris Police Chief spoke out again to support the law. Because technically, there is no guarantee that only the police can access the backdoor. Once a backdoor is introduced, it may be used by other parties - from foreign spies to hackers. Therefore, the private information of all law-abiding citizens may be threatened.
This law, which is intended to prevent drug trafficking, will not help fight crime in any way. Even if mainstream encrypted applications are weakened by backdoors, criminals can still communicate securely through dozens of smaller applications - and they are even harder to track thanks to VPNs. That's why, Telegram would rather exit the market than undermine encryption through backdoors and violate basic human rights. Unlike some of our competitors, we will not sacrifice privacy for market share.
No byte of private information has ever been leaked on Telegram. Under the EU Digital Services Act, Telegram will only disclose a suspect’s IP address and phone number if it receives a valid court order — not the content of the messages. Last month was a victory for freedom. But it was also a reminder: We must continue to explain to lawmakers that encryption doesn’t exist to protect criminals — it exists to protect the privacy and security of ordinary people. Losing that protection would be tragic. And the fight is far from over. This month, the European Commission proposed a similar initiative to add backdoors to messaging apps. No country is immune to the gradual erosion of freedom.
