The founder and CEO of Telegram, Pavel Durov, was arrested in Paris last week following allegations that his messaging app is being used for illegal activities, including drug trafficking and the distribution of child sexual abuse material.
Durov, originally from Russia, grew up in Italy and holds citizenship in France, Russia, St. Kitts and Nevis, and the United Arab Emirates. He was detained at Paris-Le Bourget Airport in France last week after arriving from Azerbaijan.
Telegram, in a statement posted on its platform, asserted that it complies with EU laws and that its content moderation meets industry standards and is continuously improving. The company also said that Durov has nothing to hide and travels frequently in Europe.
What is Telegram?
Telegram is a messaging app that supports one-on-one conversations, group chats, and large “channels” for broadcasting messages to subscribers. Unlike competitors like Meta’s WhatsApp, which limits group chats to 1,024 participants, Telegram allows up to 200,000 people in a single group chat. Experts have expressed concerns that misinformation can easily spread in such large groups. While Telegram offers communications encryption, it’s not enabled by default—a common misconception. Users must manually activate encryption, and it doesn’t apply to group chats. In contrast, apps like Signal and Facebook Messenger offer end-to-end encryption by default.
Telegram reports having over 950 million active users, and it is widely used in France, including by some officials in the presidential palace and the ministry involved in the investigation of Durov. However, French investigators have also discovered that Islamic extremists and drug traffickers have utilised the app, reports the Associated Press.
Telegram was launched in 2013 by Pavel Durov and his brother Nikolai. According to the company, Pavel Durov provides both financial and ideological support, while Nikolai contributes to the app’s technological development. Before creating Telegram, Pavel Durov founded VKontakte, Russia’s largest social network.
The company faced intense pressure during the Russian government’s crackdown following mass pro-democracy protests in Moscow in late 2011 and 2012. Durov revealed that authorities demanded VKontakte remove online communities of Russian opposition activists and later requested the platform to hand over personal data of users involved in the 2013 Ukrainian uprising, which led to the ousting of a pro-Kremlin president.
In 2014, Durov sold his stake in VKontakte under pressure from Russian authorities and left the country. Today, Telegram is headquartered in Dubai, which Durov described in an April interview with conservative talk show host Tucker Carlson as “the best place for a neutral platform like ours to be in if we want to ensure we can protect our users’ privacy and freedom of speech.”
Durov was arrested on an international warrant alleging that his platform has been used for money laundering, drug trafficking, and other criminal activities, according to French media reports.
As of Monday afternoon, he had not been charged, and few details were available on the investigation. On Sunday night, a French investigative judge extended Durov’s detention order, French media reported. Under French law, Durov can be held for questioning for up to four days before judges must decide whether to charge or release him.
What has been the response?
In Russia, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to comment on the reports of Durov’s arrest in France. “We still don’t know what exactly Durov is being accused of,” Peskov said during his daily media briefing on Monday. “We haven’t heard any official statements on that matter. Let’s wait until the charges are announced—if they are announced,” Peskov added.
Russian government officials have expressed outrage over Durov’s detention, with some labelling it politically motivated and evidence of the West’s double standards on freedom of speech. The strong reaction has surprised Kremlin critics, especially given that in 2018, Russian authorities themselves attempted to block Telegram, a ban they eventually lifted in 2020.
Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of X who describes himself as a “free speech absolutist,” has publicly voiced support for Durov, posting “#freePavel” after the arrest.
Following Durov’s arrest, Telegram released a statement on its platform, asserting that it complies with EU laws and that its moderation efforts are “within industry standards and constantly improving.” The statement added, “It is absurd to claim that a platform or its owner is responsible for the misuse of that platform. Almost a billion users globally use Telegram for communication and as a source of vital information. We await a prompt resolution of this situation. Telegram stands with all of you.”
Does Telegram moderate content?
Western governments have often criticised Telegram for its lack of content moderation, which experts argue makes the platform vulnerable to being used for money laundering, drug trafficking, and the distribution of material related to the sexual exploitation of minors.
Compared to other messaging platforms, Telegram is “less secure and more lax in terms of policy and detection of illegal content,” according to David Thiel, a researcher at Stanford University’s Internet Observatory, who has studied the use of online platforms for child exploitation.
David Thiel noted that Telegram seems largely unresponsive to law enforcement, while WhatsApp submitted over 1.3 million CyberTipline reports in 2023, compared to Telegram’s zero submissions.
In 2022, Germany imposed fines totalling 5.125 million euros ($5 million) on Telegram’s operators for not adhering to German laws, citing the lack of a lawful reporting mechanism for illegal content and failure to designate a representative in Germany for official communications, both of which are required under German regulations for major online platforms. Additionally, in 2023, Brazil temporarily suspended Telegram for not providing data related to neo-Nazi activity in an investigation of school shootings.
In response to the arrest, Telegram reiterated its compliance with EU laws and stated that its content moderation practices are “within industry standards and constantly improving.”
