Pavel Durov, the founder of Telegram and Vkontakte, the equivalent of Facebook, was arrested over the weekend in France; he has not yet been charged. His detention comes from an investigation into Telegram for allegedly facilitating widespread criminal activity.
Russia came to Durov's defense—he holds multiple citizenships, including Russian, French, and from the Caribbean island nation of St. Kitts and Nevis—saying charges must be substantiated with sufficient proof as to not encroach upon freedom of communication. French President Emmanuel Macron also said the arrest wasn't politically motivated. India has launched an investigation into alleged misuse of the app for criminal activities, but a ban is not in the offing.
Pavel Durov, a 39-year-old billionaire, is often put in the same league as Mark Zuckerberg or Elon Musk. In 2006, he founded Vkontakte, Russia's counterpart to Facebook. He left the country in 2014 after resisting a Kremlin demand to turn over user data related to protests. He has run Telegram—which uses end-to-end encryption and has generally taken a permissive approach to content moderation—since it launched in 2013. It's headquartered in Dubai, what Durov considers a neutral base to protect user privacy and freedom of speech.
Telegram does one-on-one and group chats, and broadcasting to unlimited subscribers. Its reputation for privacy has come under scrutiny regarding its use by criminal elements. Durov said in the past that Telegram's security makes it impossible to cater to both criminal and governmental interests at the same time.
He was arrested upon arrival at Le Bourget Airport outside Paris. Currently, Durov faces interrogation by the French Office for Combating Financial Crimes. Although the probe, initiated in July, is into charges including child sexual abuse material, drug trafficking, fraud, money laundering, and failing to cooperate with law enforcement.
He publicly spoke about having "over 100 biological kids" via sperm donations, never married, and prefers to live alone. He also doesn't own any stake in Vkontakte anymore: he was kicked out of the company in 2014.
This isn't the first time Telegram caught some legal flak: Russia banned the app in 2018 over encryption disputes but then lifted the ban after it proved unenforceable. Germany fined Telegram in 2022 for failing to properly handle illegal content; Brazil temporarily banned it last April for failing to provide data on neo-Nazi groups.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the surprise factor is that France and the UAE had once hacked Durov's phone because officials were concerned about the Telegram service being utilized by Islamic State recruiters. Durov had met with Macron back in 2018, with the latter suggesting that the headquarters of Telegram be relocated to Paris.
With over 950 million active users, Telegram is among the world's top 5 most-downloaded applications. The arrest has, meanwhile, provoked outrage among other social media executives: Elon Musk shared a video in support of Durov captioned #FreePavel, while Chris Pavlovski, CEO of Rumble, shared that the arrest represented a "red line" crossed by France.
Telegram would say in response that "Durov has nothing to hide" and criticized the suggestion that the founder or owner of a platform must be held liable in its misuse.
