Is Telegram Still Free? French Government Force Moldova Election Interference Via Pavel

Telegram founder Pavel Durov said on September 28 that French intelligence pressured him into removing Moldovan election channels during the 2024 campaign.

In posts on Telegram and X, he claimed the request came through an intermediary while he was in Paris and was linked to his ongoing legal case in France.

“This was unacceptable on several levels,” Durov wrote.

Allegations of election fraud in Moldova are all over Telegram. What is going on at the Central Electoral Commission of Moldova? Footage of a worker allegedly destroying ballots of the opposition parties, the Patriotic Bloc and Alternativa, and calling people who voted for them… pic.twitter.com/iXf1Y6Rh1H

— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) September 28, 2025

Durov called the approach “unacceptable,” arguing that if French agents had contacted the judge, it amounted to interference in the judicial process.

If not, he said, it meant his legal troubles were being exploited for political leverage in Eastern Europe. Here’s what you should know about Telegram, the company behind TON crypto, and whether it could face a European ban.

Did Pavel Durov’s Arrest For Telegram Spark a Free Speech Fight?

When French prosecutors arrested Pavel Durov in 2024, they blamed him for everything ugly on Telegram: drugs, scams, even child exploitation. Durov laughed it off as “absurd,” saying only a lunatic would think a CEO should babysit millions of users.

Crypto Twitter and digital rights groups turned the case into a cause, and Durov said that the whole thing was “legally and logically absurd,” because no sane world pins a user’s sins on the CEO.

About a year ago, while I was stuck in Paris, the French intelligence services reached out to me through an intermediary, asking me to help the Moldovan government censor certain Telegram channels ahead of the presidential elections in Moldova.

After reviewing the channels…

— Pavel Durov (@durov) September 28, 2025

Crypto advocates and digital rights groups framed Telegram as a last line of defense for free speech online, warning that the prosecution was a test case for platform accountability.

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Europe’s Broader Push for Online Control: Is Telegram Next?

The latest claims come amid a broader European push to regulate online platforms. In May 2025, Durov said French intelligence also pressured Telegram to censor Romanian election content, which he rejected.

“You can’t ‘defend democracy’ by destroying democracy. You can’t ‘fight election interference’ by interfering with elections,” Durov argued.

Meanwhile, the EU’s controversial 2025 proposal to monitor all chat messages, including encrypted ones, has gained backing from 19 member states.

(Source – European Blockchain Association)

According to Eurobarometer, trust in government across the EU is 32%, while nearly half of respondents now put more faith in digital platforms for communication (a climb from 42% in 2023).

Durov says Telegram will never censor for politics, no matter the pressure. At stake is the bigger question of who will set the boundaries of political speech in an age where encrypted apps shape public debate.

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