The Founder Of Telegram Warns: France Is Heading Towards A Downfall

For several months, France has been bustling on the digital stage. At the heart of this excitement: Telegram, the messaging app favored by digital dissidents. Its founder, Pavel Durov, no longer only defends freedom of expression: he openly accuses the French authorities. In a recent interview, he issues a serious warning. According to him, France is drifting, and this drift could precipitate a societal collapse.

France on the verge of breaking?

In an interview as sharp as it is unexpected, Pavel Durov, the founder of Telegram, continues to let it all out: according to him, France is heading down a dangerous slope. Far from a mere political disagreement, his statements point to a deeper, almost systemic crisis. It’s not just a matter of politics or regulation but a true societal weakening.

“Emmanuel Macron is not making the right choices,” he asserts bluntly. This candid judgment comes amid growing tensions around digital freedom of expression. In this context, Telegram becomes much more than a messaging app: it embodies a frontline between technological freedom and governmental control.

For Durov, the problem is structural. He speaks of entire generations being shaped by a single way of thinking, making collective awakening almost impossible. In his mind, this inertia is not only regrettable: it is dangerous. “When reforms are delayed too long, collapse is inevitable,” he insists. A sentence heavy with meaning.

Telegram Against Authoritarian Temptations

This warning does not emerge from nowhere. It comes in a tense climate between digital platforms and European authorities, particularly French ones. The Telegram platform, known for its robust encryption and refusal of state injunctions, crystallizes debates around content moderation. And Durov has made it a symbol of resistance.

The episode at Hôtel de Crillon, where the head of French intelligence allegedly tried to impose censorship of pro-conservative content on him, acts as a revealing moment. Durov not only said no; he exposed this attempt publicly, amplifying the scope of the matter. For him, laws like the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA) are double-edged tools. Under the guise of protection against misinformation, they open a worrying breach toward centralized ideological control.

The Telegram app thus finds itself at a crossroads. It is no longer just a communication tool; it has become a bastion of freedom of expression in a Europe where the specter of censorship resurfaces. And faced with this growing pressure, Durov chooses transparency and confrontation.

An Arrest Raising More Questions Than Answers

His arrest in August 2024 in France, still surrounded by shadows, has only intensified attention. Seen as arbitrary by much of the crypto community and digital rights defenders, it sparked an international shockwave. Telegram, and with it an entire generation of alternative networks, has become a symbol of the fight against authoritarian abuses in the digital age.

But more than the arrest itself, it is the echo it produces that worries: what does it mean for individual freedoms in the age of networks? Why does France, the country of human rights, seem to be sliding toward opaque practices worthy of less democratic states? The partial silence of the French authorities only feeds mistrust.

Telegram’s network, driven by Durov, continues its standoff with institutions. Not out of provocation, but in the name of a principle: preserving a free digital space. His warnings, though radical, resonate as an attempt to awaken a sleeping society. And perhaps, deep down, to avoid the collapse he fears so much.

The Durov affair goes beyond a simple conflict between a tech entrepreneur and a state. It raises fundamental questions about our relationship with information, freedom of expression, and political power. In this turmoil, Telegram no longer content itself with being an encrypted messenger. It becomes the mirror of French tensions, a reflector of a deep malaise.