What is Telegram and Why Was CEO Pavel Durov Arrested in Paris?

Washington: Pavel Durov, the founder and CEO of messaging app Telegram, was arrested in Paris over the weekend on allegations that his platform is used for illegal activities including drug trafficking and the distribution of images of child sexual abuse.

Who is Pavel Durov?

Durov, who was born in Russia, spent much of his childhood in Italy and is a citizen of France, Russia, the Caribbean island nation of St. Kitts and Nevis and the United Arab Emirates. He was arrested Saturday at Paris-Le Bourget airport in France after landing from Azerbaijan.

In a statement on the platform, Telegram said it complies with EU law and that its content moderation “falls within industry standards and is constantly being improved.” Durov, the company added, “has nothing to hide and travels regularly across Europe.” Here are some details about Telegram, the app at the center of Durov’s arrest.

What is Telegram?

Telegram is an app that allows for one-on-one conversations, group chats and large “channels” where people can broadcast messages to subscribers. Unlike rivals such as Meta’s WhatsApp, Telegram’s group chats allow up to 200,000 people, compared to a maximum of 1,024 for WhatsApp. Experts have raised concerns that misinformation can spread easily in group chats of this size.

Telegram offers encryption for its communications, but contrary to popular belief, the feature is not enabled by default. Users must enable the option to encrypt their chats. It also doesn’t work with group chats. That’s in contrast to rivals Signal and Facebook Messenger, where chats are end-to-end encrypted by default.

Telegram says it has more than 950 million active users. It is widely used as a messaging tool in France, including by some officials in the presidential palace and the ministry behind the Durov investigation. But French investigators have found the app has also been used by Islamic extremists and drug traffickers.

Telegram was launched in 2013 by Durov and his brother Nikolai. According to Telegram, Pavel Durov backs the app “financially and ideologically, while Nikolai’s input is technological.” Before Telegram, Durov founded VKontakte, Russia’s largest social network. The company came under pressure from the Russian government’s crackdown after mass pro-democracy protests rocked Moscow in late 2011 and 2012. Durov said that government authorities demanded that VKontakte shut down online communities of Russian opposition activists. The platform later requested the handover of personal data of users who participated in the 2013 uprising in Ukraine that ultimately ousted a pro-Kremlin president.

But Durov sold his stake in VKontakte after pressure from Russian authorities in 2014. He also left the country. Telegram is now based in Dubai, which Durov called “the best place for a neutral platform like ours if we want to make sure we can defend the privacy and freedom of expression of our users” in an April interview with conservative talk show host Tucker Carlson.

Why was Durov arrested?

French media reported that Durov was being held on an arrest warrant, alleging that his platform was used for money laundering, drug trafficking and other crimes. As of Monday afternoon, he had not been charged and few details were available about the investigation.

On Sunday evening, a French investigating judge extended Durov’s arrest warrant, French media reported Monday. Under French law, Durov can remain in custody for questioning for up to four days, after which judges must decide whether to charge him or release him.

What has the reaction been like?

In Russia, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to comment on reports of Durov’s arrest in France.

“We still don’t know what exactly Durov is accused of,” Peskov said Monday at his daily press conference. “We haven’t heard any official statements on that issue.” “Let’s wait until the charges are announced — if they are announced,” Peskov said.

Russian officials have expressed outrage over Durov’s arrest, with some calling it politically motivated and evidence of the West’s double standards on free speech. The protest has raised eyebrows among Kremlin critics: Russian authorities tried to block Telegram themselves in 2018, but failed, and lifted the ban in 2020.

Elsewhere, Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of X who calls himself a “freedom of speech absolutist,” voiced support for Durov, posting “#freePavel” after the arrest.

In a statement posted on its platform after his arrest, Telegram said it complies with EU law and that its moderation “falls within industry standards and is constantly being improved.” “It is absurd to claim that a platform or its owner is responsible for the abuse of that platform,” Telegram’s post read. “Almost a billion users worldwide use Telegram as a means of communication and as a source of essential information. We are waiting for a swift resolution of this situation. Telegram stands with all of you.”

Does Telegram moderate content?

Western governments have often criticized Telegram for its lack of content moderation, which experts say could lead to the messaging platform being used for money laundering, drug trafficking and sharing material related to the sexual exploitation of minors.

Compared to other messaging platforms, Telegram is “less secure and more lax when it comes to policies and detection of illegal content,” said David Thiel, a Stanford University researcher who has studied the use of online platforms for child exploitation at the Internet Observatory.

In addition, Telegram “appears to be essentially unresponsive to law enforcement,” Thiel said, adding that messaging service WhatsApp “filed over 1.3 million CyberTipline reports in 2023 (and) Telegram did not file a single one.” In 2022, Germany imposed fines of 5.125 million euros ($5 million) on Telegram operators for failing to comply with German law. The Federal Office of Justice said Telegram FZ-LLC had not established a legal way to report illegal content or named an entity in Germany to receive official communications.

Both are required under German law regulating major online platforms.

Last year, Brazil temporarily suspended Telegram after it refused to release data on neo-Nazi activity in connection with a police investigation into school shootings in November.

Telegram said in response to the arrest that it complies with EU law and that its content moderation “falls within industry standards and is continuously improving.”