Telegram CEO Pavel Durov has been arrested in France amid an investigation into whether the messaging and social networking platform allows crime on its app due to a lack of moderation.
Durov, who was born in Russia, fled the country in 2014 after he refused to comply with Putin’s requests to release data from Ukrainian protest leaders. Durov is now a citizen of both France and the United Arab Emirates. Telegram is now based in Dubai.
Durov is expected to appear in court in the coming days but the Russian Embassy in France has asked French authorities to clarify why Durov was detained, but France has provided no answer to them yet.
Durov’s Principled Stance?
Telegram is a messaging platform created by Durov in 2013 that competes with apps like WhatsApp and Signal. The app uses end-to-end encrypted messaging, making messages inaccessible to anyone including the messaging service itself but the sender and receiver only.
It is also known for its social networking groups and channels.
After Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, Telegram became a key source of communication and is regularly used by both Russian and Ukrainian leaders. It is controversial because of its loose approach to moderation, which has led extremist content to appear on the app, though Durov has defended it as a safe haven for free speech and privacy.
Durov’s arrest drew criticism from other social media executives, including billionaire X owner Elon Musk, who posted a video of Durov praising X with the caption “#FreePavel.” Chris Pavlovski, the CEO of Rumble, said France “crossed a red line by arresting” Durov.
Russian Duma Kicks
Russian State Duma Chairman Vyacheslav Volodin has claimed that the US government wants “total control” of social media, which is why it orchestrated the arrest of Telegram CEO Pavel Durov. Volodin pointed out that most global social media networks are of US origin and claimed that the White House controls them. However, the US has yet to be able to force Dubai-based Telegram and its Russian-born owner to supply data to the State Department or CIA.
“For Washington, using social networks for surveillance, their total censorship and subjugation, including by blackmail under the guise of combating various threats, are traditional ways of exercising political and external influence,” claimed Volodin.
Telegram is one of the few, yet among the largest, internet platforms over which the US has no influence. At the same time, it operates in many countries that are of interest” to Washington, Volodin said.
Durov’s former press secretary, Georgy Loboushkin, told American journalist Tucker Carlson in April that the persistent attacks on the entrepreneur “most likely” came from the US, which “has been after Pavel Durov for a long time.“
The Paris Public Prosecutor’s Office announced a dozen potential charges against Durov, ranging from complicity in drug dealing and money laundering to facilitating the distribution of child pornography.
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