Recently, the French Senate nearly passed a bill requiring messengers to implement "backdoors" for law enforcement, but it was rejected by the National Assembly. This marked a victory for digital privacy advocates in the country. However, the Paris police prefect has reiterated support for this initiative, as reported by Telegram founder Pavel Durov.

Durov welcomed the decision of lawmakers to reject the "law that could strip French citizens of their right to privacy". He warned that any "backdoors" could be exploited by malicious actors, jeopardizing the security of private messages.

Proponents of the bill argued it would help combat crime, but Durov doubts its effectiveness. "Even if encryption were weakened, criminals would simply switch to other platforms and protect their communications using VPNs," he added.

Telegram, used by over 700 million people, has adhered to a strict no "backdoor" policy for 12 years. "We would rather leave the market than betray our encryption principles," Durov emphasized.

Telegram complies with legal requests by revealing only the IP addresses and phone numbers of suspects, but never the content of their messages. "We have never shared a single byte of private messages," he asserted.

Despite recent victories, Durov warned that the fight for encryption is far from over, as the European Commission has proposed a similar initiative for the entire EU.

While Durov positions Telegram as an end-to-end encrypted messenger, he has faced criticism regarding its security. For instance, Signal founder Moxie Marlinspike claimed that even Facebook Messenger offers better privacy protection than Telegram.