Telegram's CEO just issued his first public statement since his arrest. Pavel Durov was arrested by French authorities in late August. The charges were related to a lack of content moderation on Telegram and Durov's refusal to work with the police to slow the spread of criminal activity.
Durov took to X this morning to issue his response. He suggested that the French government didn't make a good-faith effort to contact him about their concerns and that they should have followed the "established practice" of taking legal action against his company rather than against him as the CEO.
There's a lot of "he said she said" around just how cooperative Pavel Durov was with France's inquiries into his platform, but it's wild to me they chose to arrest him for criminal charges instead of simply banning or restricting Telegram.
Interesting times when France makes both Russia and Iran look gracious by comparison. Here's part of Durov's post: