Telegram CEO Pavel Durov was a self-proclaimed champion of free speech. Then he was arrested.
French authorities arrested Durov on Saturday as a private plane carrying him landed at Le Bourget airport, north of Paris. The Russian tech CEO and founder of online messaging app Telegram has earned a reputation as an anti-establishment opposition figure who defends ordinary people's right to free speech.
“My top priority in life is my freedom,” Durov said in an interview with Tucker Carlson in April.
After 96 hours in custody, French law enforcement authorities transferred Durov to a court on Wednesday evening, where he will be questioned by a judge and possibly charged. In the French legal system, there are certain types of judges, the so-called teaching judge, have investigative powers.
According to a press release from the Paris court, prosecutors claim Telegram was “complicit” in a range of illegal activities, including arms and drug trafficking and the distribution of child pornography, as well as serving as a communications system for terrorist groups. The company is also accused of failing to hand over materials relevant to the investigation to the government, as required by law.
Durov's brief time in the detention cell earned sympathizers who see him as an icon of free speech, but also angered critics who see Durov as a textbook example of a slow-witted tech CEO who confuses content moderation with censorship.
While living in Russia, Durov regularly defied the country's restrictive authorities. His first venture, a Russian version of Facebook called VKontakte, eventually became so popular that it was targeted by the Russian government, which demanded that he hand over information about anti-government and pro-Ukrainian protesters. When Durov refused, the government sent a special task force to his home. Eventually, Durov sold VKontakte and left Russia.
“We had a simple choice: either betray our values or hold on to our values and leave Russia to try to do something new,” Durov said in a 2017 interview.
Durov's resistance to Russian authority gave him the aura of a business leader who championed free speech. When he was arrested in France, his supporters saw parallels.
In a post on X, whistleblower Edward Snowden called Durov's arrest “an attack on the basic human rights of freedom of expression and association.” X owner Elon Musk posted a clip of Durov's interview with Carlson and added #FreePavel.
The allegations against Durov and his alleged actions since leaving Russia reveal an executive who may have been idealistic about free speech but certainly indifferent to law enforcement. Over the years, authorities around the world sent Telegram subpoenas and court orders to Durov and the company for illegal activities on his platform, according to the Wall Street Journal.
In fact, one of the charges brought by French prosecutor Laure Beccuau was that Durov and Telegram failed to provide documents and information to law enforcement authorities when they requested them.
Telegram did not respond to a request for comment from Assets. A statement released after Durov's arrest said Telegram complied with EU laws.
“It is absurd to claim that a platform or its owner is responsible for the misuse of that platform,” Telegram's post said. “Nearly a billion users around the world use Telegram as a means of communication and as a source of important information. We await a swift resolution of this situation. Telegram is with you all.”
Durov's refusal to respond to official requests probably caught up with him, legal experts say. While platforms in France enjoy protection of free speech, that protection does not apply once they have been informed of illegal activities, says Alan Walter, a lawyer at the Paris law firm Walter Billet. “He knows there is illegal content,” Walter said of Durov. “He can't ignore it … and he does nothing.”
“We can imagine that dealing with Telegram and the constant refusal to cooperate and respond to requests from law enforcement authorities has led to some frustration,” said Ahmed Baladi, partner in the Paris office of the IT law firm Gibson Dunn.
According to French authorities, Telegram channels have been used for drug trafficking, arms sales, child pornography and terrorism. ISIS members used Telegram to spread propaganda in the run-up to the group's 2015 terrorist attacks in Paris. After those attacks, Telegram removed ISIS-related content from the platform. Meanwhile, a Brazilian court suspended Telegram in 2023 after it refused to release information about two neo-Nazi groups accused of inciting violence. During his interview with Carlson, Durov also said he ignored letters from the U.S. Congress regarding information about the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol.
“We checked it with our lawyers and they said, 'Better ignore it,'” Durov said. “But the letter seemed very serious.”
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