French intelligence services asked Telegram co-founder Pavel Durov to censor Moldovan election content in 2024 in exchange for favorable treatment in his trial, which he refused. Durov resisted political pressure to censor legitimate channels with differing views. The crypto industry supports Durov in his battle for free speech against state censorship policies. In a previous incident, French authorities pressured Telegram to censor Romanian election content, which Durov also rejected. Durov criticized the French government and the EU, warning of societal collapse due to state censorship. He vowed to exit jurisdictions rather than compromise user privacy by building backdoors for state surveillance. Durov’s warnings about state-led attacks on online free speech and privacy intensified in 2025 amid an EU proposal to monitor all chat messages, including encrypted communications.

Read more at Cointelegraph: Pavel Durov Declines To Censor Moldova Election Content on Telegram