France's foreign intelligence agency on Monday rejected the claim of telegraph founder Pavel Durov that his chief asked tech tycoons to ban Romanian accounts on the platform before weekend elections.
Durov suffered a sensation in Paris in 2024 and was formally investigated by French authorities for illegal content on his popular services.
“DGSE strongly dismisses the requirement to prohibit any election process on these occasions,” the General Administration of Services of the State Administration of External Security (DSGE) said in a statement.
The Russian-born Telegraph co-founder pointed out in an article published on X on Sunday night that DGSE chief Nicolas Lerner asked him to “ban conservative voices in Romania before the election.”
“I refused. We have not stopped protesters from Russia, Belarus or Iran. We are not going to start doing this in Europe,” said Durov, 40.
Bucharest's centrist mayor Nicusor Dan won a tense replay of the Romanian presidential election on Sunday, beating nationalist George Simion in a vote, which is crucial to EU and NATO members' guidance with war-torn Ukraine.
In an earlier article on Sunday, Durov accused France of being interfered in the Romanian general election.
“The Western European government (guessed) is close to the telegram asking us to silence the conservative voice in Romania before today's presidential election,” Durov said on his channel.
Instead of name France, the post uses the icon of French baguette.
The French Foreign Ministry said it “clearly rejects these allegations.”
The Frang Intelligence Service was known on Monday for its fictional hit TV series “The Bureau” – confirming it has been in contact with Durov.
It said: “DGSE noted that it did have several direct contacts with the PD in recent years to make him firmly remind him of the responsibility of the company and his own personal responsibility to prevent terrorist and child pornography threats.”
Durov was detained in August 2024 at Le Bourget Airport outside Paris and was charged with a series of violations related to the popular messaging app he created.
After several days of inquiry, he was charged with several counts of failing to curb extremist and terrorist content and was released on 5 million euros ($5.6 million) bail.
After that, Durov announced that the measures seemed to succumb to Paris' demands.
Sources told AFP at the time that in March, he was allowed to leave France for Dubai temporarily.
The Kremlin said on Monday that the statement of French intervention was “not news.”
“European countries – France, Britain, Germany – are interfering in the internal affairs of other countries,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
“These are just pieces that have been revealed.”
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