In a long post, Telegram founder and chief executive Pavel Durov attacked France, saying it was "surprising" he was being held responsible for other people's content on the popular messaging app.
Durov criticized France in a post on Telegram for his arrest and indictment last month over the publishing of extremist and illegal content on the popular messaging app.
"Trying to use the laws from the pre-smartphone era in order to charge a CEO with crimes committed by third parties on the platform he manages is a misguided approach," he added.
He further assaulted as "completely not true" claims that "Telegram is some kind of anarchic paradise"; he insisted: "We take down millions of harmful posts and channels every day."
He denied accusations from France that Paris had not received responses from Telegram to its requests, saying he personally helped the French authorities "establish a hotline with Telegram to deal with the threat of terrorism in France".
But Durov adopted a more conciliatory tone toward the end of his message, in which he added that Telegram's rocketing user numbers-now 950 million worldwide-caused "growing pains that made it easier for criminals to abuse our platform".
That's why I made it my personal goal to make sure we considerably improve things in this respect, he said, adding that this was being worked out "internally" and more details would be shared in the future.
"I hope that the events of August will result in making Telegram -- and the social networking industry as a whole -- safer and stronger."
He added that when Telegram can't come to an agreement on the "right balance between privacy and security" with local regulators, then "we are ready to leave that country".
Durov, 39, was indicted after four days under arrest in France on several counts of failing to curb extremist and illegal content on Telegram.
He has been supported by fellow technology tycoon and X chief executive Elon Musk, who posted comments under the hashtag #FreePavel.
Durov was arrested on August 24 at Le Bourget airport outside Paris after flying in aboard a private jet, and questioned in the following days by investigators.
He was granted conditional release on bail of five million euros ($5.5 million) pending trial and on condition that he must report to a police station twice a week as well as remaining in France.
An enigmatic figure who rarely speaks in public, Durov is a citizen of Russia, France, and the UAE, where Telegram is based.
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