Telegram becomes a flashpoint for free speech after reports of founder’s arrest
The company’s rapid growth – it has now more than 900 millions users – has been fueled in part by its commitment to freedom of speech. Telegram’s lack of oversight over what users say and do has allowed people under authoritarian regimes to communicate and organize. Many were shocked to learn on Saturday that Durov was arrested in France for charges related the spreading of illicit content on the service. As word spread online, his reported detention became a flashpoint in a continuing debate about free speech on the internet.
Elon Musk, the owner of X, which has adopted a similarly hands-off approach to content moderation, posted “#FreePavel” on his X account. “It is 2030 in Europe, and you are being executed for liking an internet meme,” he added. “Durov isn’t an ‘accomplice,'” he said. National governments, especially those in the European Union, have intensified pressure on companies to address disinformation, online extremism, child safety and the spread of illicit material.
Telegram has long been on the radar of law enforcement agencies around the world because terrorist organizations, drug sellers, weapons dealers and far-right extremist groups have used it for communicating, recruiting and organizing.
Mr. Durov, 39, was arrested at Le Bourget Airport near Paris after landing on a private plane from Azerbaijan, according to French news reports.
Representatives of the French police and Interior Ministry declined to comment and redirected questions to the Paris prosecutor’s office. The Paris prosecutor’s office, citing an open investigation, also declined to comment.
In a statement on Telegram on Sunday, the company said, “Telegram abides by EU laws,” adding, “Telegram’s CEO Pavel Durov has nothing to hide.”
In an interview on Telegram, George Lobushkin, a former press secretary for Mr. Durov who remains close to him, wrote, “This is a monstrous attack on freedom of speech worldwide.”
The arrest of Mr. Durov risked intensifying tensions with Russia. The Russian Embassy in France said in a statement on Sunday that it had asked the French authorities for clarification on news of the arrest.
Vladislav Davankov, the deputy speaker of the State Duma, a chamber of Russia’s Parliament, called for Mr. Durov’s release. He said the arrest could be an effort to gain access to information held by Telegram and “cannot be allowed,” according to Meduza, an independent Russian news organization.
Mr. Bloomberg estimated Durov’s net worth at $9 billion. He has largely avoided public scrutiny that top executives from other online platforms have faced, such as Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Shou Chew, TikTok, and Sundar Piichai, Google. Durov’s arrest, if true, would be a rare occurrence. The European Union and the United States government have summoned leaders of other social networking sites and questioned them, but rarely has a tech leader been detained over what happens on these sites. In 2016, the Brazilian authorities arrested a senior Facebook executive after the company failed to turn over information from WhatsApp as part of a drug trafficking investigation.
Of particular interest after Mr. Durov’s reported detainment in France could be what information Telegram would decide to share, or withhold. Telegram may be forced to provide information to the French authorities about criminal channels, such as those used to coordinate terrorist attacks or sell weapons. Such a move could test Telegram’s claim to its users that it strictly safeguards their information.
A Russian national, Mr. Durov left Russia in 2014 after he lost control of Vkontakte, the rival to Facebook in Russia. He had founded Telegram the year before and marketed it as a way to communicate in a secretive, uncensored manner. The company is now based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Mr. Durov has citizenship in France and the U.A.E., according to Telegram.
Telegram works as a standard messaging app, like iMessage or WhatsApp, but also hosts channels and groups in which large numbers of people can broadcast ideas and communicate.
Telegram’s popularity stems from its decision to allow large chat groups with up to 200,000 users, when other social media like WhatsApp were reducing group sizes to combat misinformation. Other functions, like the sharing of large files, no limits on sharing links and bots that can interact with users within channels, have helped make it a powerful tool for social organization and coordination.
Those capabilities, combined with the app’s minimal moderation, made it a haven for individuals and groups that were banned from other platforms like Twitter and Facebook.
Telegram makes money through in-app purchases, advertising, subscriptions and other promotions. In March, Mr. Durov told The Financial Times that Telegram was nearing profitability and considering an initial public offering.
Reports of Mr. Durov’s arrest were immediately met with criticism by fans of the service as an example of governments trying to censor free speech on the internet. Mr. Durov is a man who has kept a low-profile, and does not give many interviews to the media. He talks about his ascetic life, his travels, and more recently how he has over 100 biological children as a result of being a sperm donation. On Instagram, he occasionally posts photos of himself shirtless.
Although Mr. Durov portrays himself as a crusader for free speech, many security experts have said Telegram is not sufficiently encrypted. Disinformation analysts also say that, by taking a light touch with moderation, the app has become a major vector for the spread of terrorist propaganda and far-right extremism.
Mr. Durov has linked Telegram’s creation to an encounter he had in his apartment with Russia’s Security Services, who he claims broke into it to force him to remove opposition political content on Vkontakte. More recently, he abandoned plans to issue a cryptocurrency through Telegram after scrutiny from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
After he left Russia in 2014, Mr. Durov said he traveled to Berlin, San Francisco, London, Singapore and other cities before making Dubai the headquarters for Telegram. Russia at one point tried to ban Telegram, but the company’s troubles appeared to ease after a top company executive appeared in 2020 on a tech panel with Russia’s prime minister.
Tucker Carlson, the far-right talk show host who interviewed Mr. Durov this year, said the reported arrest was “a living warning to any platform owner who refuses to censor the truth at the behest of governments and intel agencies.”
