Russian-born Pavel Durov said French intelligence asked him to ban Romanian right-wing comments on the Telegram messaging app he founded ahead of the weekend runoff presidential election in the Balkan country, an accusation the Directorate General for External Security (DGSE) rejected.
Durov said in a social media post late on May 18, voting day in the election that pitted centrist Nicusor Dan against ultranationalist George Simion, that Nicolas Lerner, the head of French intelligence, "asked me to ban conservative voices in Romania ahead of elections," which Durov said he refused to do.
The vote, which Dan won in a surprise with around 54 percent of the ballots, was forced after the initial election in November was annulled amid accusations of Russian meddling in the campaign largely through social media.
"The DGSE strongly refutes allegations that requests to ban accounts linked to any electoral process were made on these occasions," the French intelligence agency said in a statement on May 19.
The 40-year-old Durov originally alleged a "Western European government" had made the request in a post that also included an emoji of French baguette.
Durov -- who has citizenship in France as well as Russia, the United Arab Emirates, and the Caribbean archipelago of St. Kitts and Nevis -- later published the post naming Lerner directly.
The DSGE did say in its statement that it had been "obliged on several occasions in recent years" to remind Durov "firmly of his company's responsibilities, and his own personal responsibilities, in terms of preventing terrorist and child pornography threats."
Durov made headlines in August last year when he was detained at an airport just outside of Paris.
He was charged on August 28 with several crimes related to alleged illicit activity on the messaging app but avoided jail after posting a $5.5 million bail and was released on the condition that he remain in France and report to a police station twice a week.
French prosecutors accused him of complicity in allowing drug trafficking and the sharing of sexual images of children on Telegram, and of refusing to share documents demanded by authorities investigating illegal activity on the app.
He called the arrest "misguided" though Telegram has taken steps since that appear to directly address the issues brought up in the case.
