What You Need to Know About Telegram, the Messaging App Whose CEO Was Arrested Over the Weekend

CNN

By Clare Duffy, CNN

New York (CNN) — The arrest of Telegram CEO Pavel Durov in France over the weekend has cast a pall over the popular messaging service and its enigmatic founder. in the spotlight.

Russian-born Durov was arrested at Paris’s Bourget airport on Saturday on a warrant related to Telegram’s lack of moderation.

Those charges include allegations that his platform was complicit in helping fraudsters, money launderers, drug traffickers and people who distribute child pornography, French prosecutor Laure Beccuau said in a statement Monday. Beccuau added that Durov is accused of refusing to provide “information or documents” related to the investigation.

The app also has have recently come under fire for their use by terrorist groups and far-right extremists.

Durov’s arrest has sparked a debate about freedom of expression and who is responsible for it for illegal content on the internet. Russian lawmaker Maria Butina, who was convicted in the US in 2019 on espionage charges and deported to Russia, called the CEO a “political prisoner” on Sunday, Reuters reported.

But French President Emmanuel Macron said in a statement to X on Monday that Durov’s arrest was “in no way a political decision.”

“I am reading false information about France after the arrest of Pavel Durov,” Macron said, adding that the arrest “took place as part of an ongoing judicial investigation”.

The Paris prosecutor’s office said Monday that Durov’s arrest is part of a large-scale investigation into criminal activity dating back to July 8 on Telegram, with a total of 12 separate charges.

Telegram has said it complies with EU law and that Durov has “nothing to hide”.

Here’s what you need to know about Telegram and why it’s under fire.

What is Telegram?

Telegram is an encrypted messaging service launched in 2013 by Durov and his brother Nikolai. The app now has more than 950 million users, according to a post by Durov last month, making it one of the most widely used messaging platforms in the world.

The platform has become an indispensable service in many countries, used for everything from everyday chat conversations and sending photos and documents to disseminating government messages.

Because conversations on the app are encrypted, law enforcement – ​​and Telegram itself – have little oversight over what users post.

That privacy has made Telegram a vital communication tool in countries where freedom of speech is restricted, such as Russia, Iran and India. The app is also popular in Ukraine, where it has become a vital tool for sharing news about the war and warnings about airstrikes.

But that same protection has also made the service popular among drug traffickers, money launderers and extremists, including white supremacists and terrorist groups like ISIS.

Telegram allows as many as 200,000 users to join individual chat groups, where false claims can spread quickly. Other encrypted services, such as Meta’s WhatsApp, have much smaller limits on group sizes.

In March, Durov told the Financial Times that the app was “close to profitability” after introducing advertising and subscription offerings two years ago, adding that the company was considering an initial public offering.

A platform that stirs controversy

In addition to its use by criminals and extremists, Telegram has also come under fire for its role in major conflicts and political events, and for refusing to abandon its commitment to encryption.

Moscow attempted to ban Telegram in 2018 after it refused to provide Russian security services with decryption keys that would allow state authorities to read private messages. Durov vowed to ignore the ban, which was eventually lifted in 2020.

Telegram gained popularity among Trump supporters and followers of the Q-Anon conspiracy theory in 2021 after mainstream social media platforms like Facebook began cracking down on false claims that the 2020 US presidential election was stolen. This raised concerns among law enforcement officials who concerned that the disinformation could lead to more violence in the real world.

Last fall, Telegram restricted access to several channels closely affiliated with or controlled by Hamas, due to the militant group’s war with Israel.

Earlier this month, the messaging app began actively removing calls for violence from the platform after reports emerged that the app was being used to organize far-right, anti-immigrant riots in the UK.

“Telegram’s moderators are actively monitoring the situation and are removing channels and posts that incite violence,” Telegram spokesperson Remi Vaughn said in a statement at the time. “Incitements to violence are explicitly prohibited by Telegram’s Terms of Service.”

Telegram moderators proactively monitor public areas of the platform, using AI tools and user reports to remove content that violates the rules, Vaughn said.

Telegram said in a statement on Sunday that “it is absurd to claim that a platform or its owner is responsible for abuse of that platform.”

Who is Pavel Durov?

Durov, the billionaire founder of Telegram, was born in the Soviet Union in 1984. He said he had an aptitude for mathematics and programming from an early age.

In 2006, Durov launched Vkontakte (VK), a social media site, when he was 21 and fresh out of college. As the app grew, he became popularly known as the “Mark Zuckerberg of Russia.”

But when protesters began using VK in 2013 to organize demonstrations in Kiev against Ukraine’s pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych, Durov said the Kremlin asked the site to hand over the private data of Ukrainian users.

Durov refused, resigned as CEO of VK, sold his shares in the company and left Russia in 2014. “I don’t want to take orders from anyone,” Durov said of his decision to give up the company and leave his home country.

Durov also launched Telegram in 2013. He now lives in Dubai, where Telegram is headquartered, and is also a French citizen.

In addition to running Telegram, Durov has become something of an online influencer, sharing photos of his world travels (and often shirtless ones) on Instagram. He also claims to have fathered more than 100 children thanks to sperm donations he’s made over the past 15 years.

–Joshua Berlinger, Camille Knight, and Anna Chernova contributed to this report.

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