- Telegram’s CEO, Pavel Durov, has said that Telegram would rather leave a market than undermine encryption with back doors
- This is coming as France and other governments are pushing for a legal back door for police access to private and encrypted messages
- Pavel Durov was arrested in August 2024 in France to provide, among other things, encrypted services to criminals
Telegram’s CEO, Pavel Durov, has said that Telegram would rather leave a market than “undermine encryption with back doors”, confirming the company’s commitment to users’ privacy and security.
“Unlike some of our competitors, we are not dealing with the privacy of the market share. In its 12-year history, Telegram has never revealed a single byte with private messages,” Durov wrote in his public telegram channel on April 21, 2025.
Telegram’s promise comes in response to the widespread push of a legal remedy for law enforcement to access private and encrypted messages from French lawmakers and other European governments. It repeats a similar position previously shared by the Secure Messaging App Signal and other providers.
As Durov explains in his post, France recently rejected a controversial encryption provision that “would have made France the first in the world to strip its citizens in their right to privacy.”
The bill would have required all encrypted messaging apps and secure E email services to decrypt user data at an authority’s request in which de facto created a back door for law enforcement in the software’s encryption.
However, cryptographers and other experts have long claimed that such a back door cannot be implemented without weakening the security infrastructure on which encrypted services depend.
“Why? Because it is technically impossible to guarantee that only the police can access a back door. Once introduced, a back door can be utilized by other parties – from foreign agents to hackers,” Durov wrote.
Durov also pointed out how weakened encryption for any user to fight crime can be ineffective. That’s because criminals could continue using the best VPN services and less encrypted apps to cover their tracks online.
French authorities arrested Pavel Durov back in August 2024 and, among other things, accused him of providing encrypted services to criminals. A study is currently underway.
“The Battle is far from past”
Despite last month’s victory in France, “the battle is far from past,” Durov said.
This is not just because, as Durov mentioned, the Paris police prefect was in for an encryption back door again last week. Several countries in Europe are considering a similar proposal.
Do you know?
While services like Signal And even WhatsApp is end-to-end encrypted as default-what means all the messages you exchange on their platform are completely private between you and your recipient-only Telegram‘s secret chats are end-to-end encrypted. This means that you must actively choose this feature to take advantage of this extra privacy.
Finding a way for legal and effective access to data for law enforcement is actually the main target of the EU Commission’s new strategy, Protecteu. Encrypted data is the most important goal.
Sweden is also considering enforcing a similar requirement for them as a signal, whatsapp and iMessage. If they succeed, the new rules could come into force as early as March 2026.
In February, Apple was forced to kill its iCloud’s end-to-end encryption feature in the UK following a government order to create an encryption back door to give law enforcement access to users’ data.
Once assumed to be a paradise for online privacy, a change in Swiss surveillance law could also postpone safe encryption and internet anonymity in the country.
Outside of Europe, Florida seeks to force all social media platforms that allow accounts for minors to allow an encryption back door for law enforcement.
