MOSCOW (Reuters) – The founder of the Telegram messaging app, Pavel Durov, said on Sunday he had refused a request by a Western country, which he did not name, to “silence” conservative voices in Romania, which was holding a presidential election run-off.
“A Western European government… approached Telegram, asking us to silence conservative voices in Romania ahead of today’s presidential elections. I flatly refused. Telegram will not restrict the freedoms of Romanian users or block their political channels,” Pavel Durov wrote on Telegram, accompanying his post with an emoji of baguette which might hint at France.
Durov was arrested at an airport near Paris last August and subsequently placed under formal investigation, with a ban on leaving France. In March he returned to Dubai.
(Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Gareth Jones)
Comments