Just reporting here an exchange between Durov and the French government that happened in the past few days

It started with Durov posting this message in his telegram channel:

A Western European government (guess which 🥖) 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.

You can’t “defend democracy” by destroying democracy. You can’t “fight election interference” by interfering with elections. You either have freedom of speech and fair elections — or you don’t. And the Romanian people deserve both.

…statement which received a reply by the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs Twitter account: https://x.com/francediplo_EN/status/1924138188722815052

Durov later tweeted a few more information (explicit name of the official from which the request was received):

This spring at the Salon des Batailles in the Hôtel de Crillon, Nicolas Lerner, head of French intelligence, asked me to ban conservative voices in Romania ahead of elections. I refused. We didn’t block protesters in Russia, Belarus, or Iran. We won’t start doing it in Europe.

Musk replied twice to durov’s tweets

Just leaving this here for the record