France's Senate Rejects Encryption Legislation

Last month, the French Senate nearly approved a bill requiring messaging services to implement a "backdoor" for police access to end-to-end encrypted messages. This controversial decision was ultimately rejected by the National Assembly, marking a temporary victory for digital privacy advocates in France. However, just three days ago, the Paris police prefect once again advocated for this initiative, as reported by Telegram's founder Pavel Durov.

Durov welcomed the lawmakers for rejecting a "law that would have made France the first country in the world to strip its citizens of their right to privacy". He warned that any built-in "backdoors" for law enforcement could be exploited by other parties – from foreign agents to hackers – compromising the private messages of all law-abiding citizens.

While supporters of the bill argued that it would help combat drug trafficking, Durov expressed doubt about its effectiveness. "Even if the main encrypted platforms were weakened, criminals would simply switch to dozens of lesser-known apps and secure their communications using VPNs," he explained.

According to Durov, Telegram, which has over 700 million users worldwide, has maintained a strict no "backdoor" policy for 12 years. "We would rather exit the market than betray encryption and violate basic human rights," he emphasized, contrasting Telegram's approach with competitors who "trade privacy for market share".

Under the EU Digital Services Act, he stated, Telegram complies with lawful court orders, revealing only IP addresses and phone numbers of suspects – but never the content of their messages. "We have never transmitted a single byte of private messages," Durov asserted.

Despite the recent defeat of lawmakers in France, Durov warned that the fight for encryption is far from over. In March, the European Commission proposed a similar initiative to implement "backdoors" in messaging apps across the European Union.

Although Durov positions Telegram as a messenger with end-to-end encryption, he has faced criticism for overstating its security. Notably, in 2021, Signal messenger founder Moxie Marlinspike claimed that even Facebook Messenger offers better privacy protection than Telegram, as end-to-end encryption (E2EE) is only activated in Telegram's "secret chats", and is not enabled by default for all conversations.