Telegram CEO Pavel Durov reportedly charged by French authorities. What to know about the arrest, and why there’s backlash.

Pavel Durov, the co-founder and CEO of messaging app Telegram, has reportedly been charged with enabling criminal transactions by French authorities, who arrested him on Saturday. The charges carry a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a fine of €500,000 ($555,750 USD), NBC News reported.

Durov’s arrest stems from the French government’s investigation into whether Telegram has encouraged criminal behavior on its platform. The news initially prompted some backlash from those who claim the CEO’s arrest violates free speech. Authorities are arguing that the platform failed to moderate posts and conversations involving 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 by Durov and his brother, Nikolai, in 2013. Since then it has exploded into one of the world’s largest online communities and is considered to be 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 communication between users private, eliminating the option to commercially exploit users’ personal data, which has been an issue in the U.S. (It’s noteworthy that only Secret Chats have end-to-end encryption, unlike with Signal or WhatsApp, where encrypted messages are the default.)

In a 2020 post on Telegram, right before the app reached 500 million active users, Durov reassured users that the company would not be sold to a larger media conglomerate (which is what happened with WhatsApp) and that the majority of features would stay free and ad-free.

Durov told the Financial Times in March that Telegram makes money through in-app purchases, advertising and subscriptions and that it was nearing profitability.

But the freedom from advertising or membership fees can come at a price: Because Telegram’s messaging and public posts are not moderated as strictly as those of other platforms, it ends up allowing a lot of content — like that of extremist right-wing groups and organized crime — that would be banned elsewhere.

At one point, it was the go-to space for militant groups like the Islamic State to market their beliefs. (Telegram did shut down channels associated with the Islamic State group after the 2015 Paris terror attacks.)

A Washington Post investigation from March also found that children and teenagers were victims of intense cyberbullying on Telegram, with some adults allegedly blackmailing young users into harming themselves on camera. (The Post investigation also noted that this behavior was not limited to Telegram, but was also happening on popular online spaces such as 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 were creating websites for fun by the time they were in college.

Durov was dubbed the “Russian Mark Zuckerberg” after launching a social media company similar to Facebook called VKontakte — or VK — in 2006.

In 2013 he and Nikolai launched Telegram, an instant messaging service. Telegram describes itself as a combination of social media, SMS and email.

Why was he arrested?

Durov, who has dual French and United Arab Emirates citizenship, was arrested following a preliminary investigation by French police focusing on 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 that Telegram has failed to cooperate with law enforcement.

Durov has claimed in the past that Telegram removes any and all inappropriate images and calls for violence, but the platform still remains largely unmoderated, especially compared to others.

In 2014, one year after founding Telegram, Durov fled Russia after refusing to hand over data to the government on Ukrainian users of his first social media company, VKontakte. It’s not clear whether he renounced his Russian citizenship after fleeing in 2014.

Backlash to the arrest

The majority of the backlash to Durov’s arrest has been about freedom of speech. X owner Elon Musk, Chris Pavlovski, 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 basic human rights of speech and association.” And Tucker Carlson described the situation as a “warning to any platform owner who refuses to censor the truth.”

There is not a lot of 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 responsible for what takes place on their app.

“Here in the United States, social media platform owners are largely protected from illegal activities of users on their platforms thanks to 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 the author of A History of Fake Things on the Internet.

In an interview with Yahoo News, Scheirer noted that while Telegram remains operational as of Monday, “the future of that platform and Durov’s fate may be inseparable at this point.”

“It is an open question as to what impact all of this will have for speech on the internet,” he said.

Brian Fishman, former counterterrorism policy manager at Meta, argued that those defending Telegram for free speech reasons should not downplay the platform’s problems as an issue of insufficient or “light” content moderation.

In a post on Threads, Fishman emphasized Telegram’s decade-long reputation as a safe haven for terrorist groups, child predators and hate groups thanks to its laissez-faire rules.

“Should we watch here for dangerous precedent? Yes,” he said, referring to Durov’s arrest. “But we should also acknowledge how brazenly Telegram has flouted norms adopted by nearly everyone else. It’s not just another platform. It’s been far worse.”

In reaction to the backlash and suggestions that Durov’s arrest violates free speech, 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 on Sunday, Telegram said that it “abides by EU laws, including the Digital Services Act” and that “its moderation is within industry standards and constantly improving.”

“Telegram’s CEO Pavel Durov has nothing to hide and travels frequently in Europe,” the statement said. “It is absurd to claim that a platform or its owner are responsible for abuse of that platform.”