Pavel Durov, co-founder and CEO of messaging app Telegram, was arrested by French police on Saturday as he arrived at an airport outside Paris.
The arrest comes amid French authorities’ investigation into whether Telegram encouraged criminal behavior on its platform. It has sparked some backlash from those who argue the CEO’s arrest violates freedom of expression. While Durov has not been formally charged with a crime, authorities allege the platform failed to moderate posts and conversations related to drug trafficking, fraud, child pornography and the promotion of terrorism.
Here’s what you need to know about Telegram, Durov, and his recent arrest.
What is Telegram?
Telegram is an encrypted messaging app launched in 2013 by Durov and his brother Nikolai. Since then, it has grown into one of the world’s largest online communities and is considered a central social media, news, and messaging platform for people in Russia, Ukraine, and India. Telegram now reportedly has 900 million users, and Forbes estimates Durov’s net worth at $15 billion.
A big draw for Telegram users is the app’s custom security settings, which allow users to have Secret Chats: end-to-end encrypted messages that can “self-destruct,” or delete, anywhere from one second to a week after the recipient opens the message, based on a timer set by the sender.
End-to-end encryption is a security method that keeps all communications between users private. This prevents users’ personal data from being commercially abused, which is a concern in the US. (Note that only Secret Chats has end-to-end encryption, unlike Signal or WhatsApp, where encrypted messages are the default.)
In a 2020 Telegram post, just before the app reached 500 million active users, Durov assured users that the company would not be sold to a larger media conglomerate (as happened with WhatsApp) and that most features would remain free and ad-free.
Durov told the Financial Times in March that Telegram makes money through in-app purchases, advertising and subscriptions and that the company was close to profitability.
But freedom from advertising or membership fees may come at a price: Because Telegram’s messages and public posts aren’t as strictly moderated as those on other platforms, it ends up allowing a lot of content, such as from far-right groups and organized crime, that would be banned elsewhere.
At one point, it was the place where militant groups like the Islamic State marketed their beliefs. (Telegram shut down all channels connected to the Islamic State after the 2015 Paris attacks.)
A Washington Post investigation in March also found that children and teens were the victims of intense cyberbullying on Telegram, with some adults reportedly blackmailing young users into harming themselves on camera. (The Post investigation also noted that this behavior was not limited to Telegram, but also occurred on popular online platforms like Roblox and Discord.)
Who is Pavel Durov?
Durov, 39, spent his childhood between Italy and Russia, where he was born. In an interview with Tucker Carlson earlier this year, Durov described how he and Nikolai excelled at coding and building websites for fun while in college.
Durov was dubbed the “Russian Mark Zuckerberg” after he founded a social media company similar to Facebook in 2006, VKontakte (or VK).
In 2013, he and Nikolai launched Telegram, an instant messaging service. Telegram describes itself as a combination of social media, texting, and email.
Why was he arrested?
Durov, who holds dual French and UAE citizenship, was arrested following a preliminary investigation by French police into the lack of content moderation on Telegram, French publication Le Monde reported. The investigation alleges that Telegram encouraged criminal activity such as drug trafficking, cyber fraud, child pornography and terrorism by emphasizing the app’s privacy. Police also accused Durov of failing to take action against criminal activity on his platform and said Telegram has failed to cooperate with law enforcement.
Durov has claimed in the past that Telegram removes all inappropriate images and calls for violence, but the platform still remains largely unmoderated, especially compared to other platforms.
In 2014, a year after founding Telegram, Durov fled Russia after refusing to hand over data on Ukrainian users of his first social media company, VKontakte, to the government. It is not clear whether he renounced his Russian citizenship after fleeing in 2014.
Backlash to the arrest
Much of the backlash to Durov’s arrest has focused on free speech. X owner Elon Musk; Chris Pavlovsky, the CEO of Rumble, a right-wing version of YouTube; and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who just suspended his independent presidential campaign, all publicly criticized the decision on free speech grounds. Whistleblower Edward Snowden called the arrest “an assault on the fundamental human rights of expression and association.” And Tucker Carlson described the situation as “a warning to every platform owner who refuses to censor the truth.”
There’s not much precedent for an arrest like this. The European Union and the U.S. government have both tried to crack down on social media when it comes to misinformation and criminal activity, and while tech leaders have appeared in court to defend their platforms, no executive has been arrested and held personally accountable for what happens on their app.
“Here in the United States, social media platform owners are largely protected from illegal activity by users on their platforms by provisions in Section 230 of the Communications Act,” said Walter Scheirer, an associate professor of computer science and engineering at the University of Notre Dame and author of A History of Fake News on the Internet.
In an interview with Yahoo News, Scheirer noted that while Telegram was still operational on Monday, “the future of that platform and the fate of Durov may be inextricably linked at this point.”
“The question is what impact all this will have on freedom of expression on the internet,” he said.
Brian Fishman, former counterterrorism manager at Meta, argued that those who defend Telegram on free speech grounds should not downplay the platform’s problems as a matter of insufficient or “light” content moderation.
In a post on Threads, Fishman pointed out that Telegram has had a decades-long reputation as a safe haven for terrorist groups, child abusers, and hate groups, thanks to its laissez-faire rules.
“Should we be careful about setting dangerous precedents here? Yes,” he said, referring to Durov’s arrest. “But we should also recognize how blatantly Telegram has violated the norms that almost everyone else has adopted. It’s not just any platform. It’s been much worse.”
In response to the negative reactions and suggestions that Durov’s arrest violates freedom of expression, French President Emmanual Macron said in an X post on Monday that France is “deeply committed to freedom of expression and communication,” but that “freedoms are upheld within a legal framework, both on social media and in real life, to protect citizens and respect their fundamental rights.”
Has Telegram responded to the arrest?
In a statement issued Sunday, Telegram said it “adheres to EU law, including the Digital Services Act” and that “its moderation is within industry standards and is continuously being improved.”
“Telegram CEO Pavel Durov has nothing to hide and travels regularly across Europe,” the statement said. “It is absurd to claim that a platform or its owner is responsible for the abuse of that platform.”