Four hours before polling stations closed in Romania, Pavel Durov, the founder and head of the messaging service Telegram, released a shocking message: a "European country," which he identified as France using a baguette emoji, allegedly asked him to "silence conservative voices" in Romania "ahead of the presidential election." George Simion, the far-right candidate who already accused his opponents of attempting to rig the elections, quickly rebroadcast the message, which was translated into Romanian and sent via Telegram to users in the country.

An hour later, the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement denying the "completely unfounded" accusations. Durov's messages, which were also posted on X, are "nothing but a diversionary tactic in the face of real interference threats targeting Romania," wrote the French diplomatic service. A Romanian diplomatic spokesperson later released a statement covertly accusing Telegram of participating in a Russian interference operation, denouncing a "viral campaign of false information on Telegram and other platforms."

In the early evening, as exit polls indicated a victory for the pro-European candidate Nicusor Dan, another twist occurred: Durov published another message, this time specifically accusing the director of the DGSE, Nicolas Lerner, of having "asked him to ban conservative voices in Romania before the elections" during a meeting in the spring at the Hôtel de Crillon in Paris. The message was rebroadcast by the English-speaking far right, most notably by Elon Musk.

The DGSE's denial

The DGSE told Le Monde that it had "been obliged, on several occasions over the past few years, to make direct contact with Pavel Durov to firmly remind him of the responsibilities of his company, and his personal responsibilities, in terms of preventing terrorist and child pornography threats," but "vigorously refutes the allegations that there had been requests to ban accounts linked to any electoral process."

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