Telegram CEO Pavel Durov arrested in France for alleged criminal content moderation

Pavel Durov, co-founder and chief executive of encrypted messaging app company Telegram Messenger Inc., was arrested by French authorities on Saturday evening local time on serious charges related to incitement to terrorism, fraud, money laundering and crimes against children.

The charges do not allege that Durov committed such crimes, but that he instigated them by failing to moderate such content on Telegram.

Telegram launched in 2013 and has been successful (close to 900 million users worldwide) in offering an encrypted messaging platform where messages cannot be monitored or intercepted because they are encrypted. Telgram’s encrypted security-by-design offering is central to its appeal and Durvo, an avowed libertarian, has refused to budge on his stance, weaken encryption or provide backdoor access to Western intelligence services.

Durov was arrested by officers from the French Air Transport Gendarmerie, the Cyberspace Gendarmerie Command, the National Anti-Fraud Office and the Border Police on the runway at Le Bourget airport at around 8 p.m. local time, after landing in a private jet.

The arrest is related to Telegram’s lack of censorship, although the exact charges are not known. According to FF1Info (translated from French), Durov was arrested on a court order issued by the Office for Minors of the National Director of the French Judicial Police based on a preliminary investigation.

The preliminary investigation concluded that Durov failed to cooperate with authorities or commit to moderating the conduct, making him, and therefore Telegram, complicit in drug trafficking, “pedophile” crimes, and fraud. Durov is expected to be possibly charged on Sunday with a multitude of crimes related to terrorism, narcotics, complicity, fraud, money laundering, receiving stolen property, and criminal pedophile content.

In response to the arrest, Telegram said it respects EU laws, including the Digital Services Act, and that its moderation is in line with industry standards. It added that Durov has nothing to hide and that “it is absurd to claim that a platform or its owner is responsible for the abuse of that platform.”

Regardless of how the charges are resolved, the case is notable for what exactly Telegram says: Durov, as CEO, has been arrested not for any direct criminal wrongdoing, but for the actions of others on a platform he co-founded and runs. And if platform founders and operators can be arrested in the EU for people doing the wrong things on their platform, what’s to stop Elon Musk or Mark Zuckerberg from being next?

Musk, in particular, has come under fire from the EU in the past for failing to censor content it didn’t like, such as in October last year. Earlier this month, EU Commissioner Thierry Breton claimed Musk was not complying with the Digital Markets Act — the same law cited by Telegram in connection with the allegations against Durov. Musk would probably be better off not visiting France in the near future.

While Zuckerberg and Meta may not have been targeted in the same way so far, mainly because Meta is trying to comply with censorship, the same reported criminality against Telegram users that led to Durov’s arrest is present throughout Meta’s products.

Durov’s arrest has arguably opened a Pandora’s box of potential legal action against platform owners for the actions of their users.

Photo: Hubert Burda Media/Flickr