Telegram’s CEO, Pavel Durov, was arrested at Le Bourget Airport near Paris after his private jet landed. French authorities detained the 39-year-old billionaire due to a warrant related to accusations that Telegram.
The messaging app he founded, hasn’t done enough to stop its platform from being used for illegal activities like drug trafficking, sharing child sexual content, and fraud. Despite Telegram’s claims of adequate moderation, French officials argue that Durov has neglected to curb these criminal uses.
Durov, originally from Russia but now residing in Dubai, holds dual citizenship with France and the UAE. His app, Telegram, is widely used in Russia, Ukraine, and other former Soviet states. Back in 2018, Russia banned Telegram after Durov refused to share user data, though this ban was later lifted in 2021.
This arrest has stirred reactions, with some seeing it as a blow to freedom of speech, while others view it as a necessary step against the misuse of social platforms.
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Durov’s history includes leaving Russia in 2014 after clashing with the government over censorship on VKontakte, another social platform he founded before Telegram.
On Sunday, the Russian Embassy in France wrote on Facebook that it was seeking to “clarify the reasons for the detention and to provide for the protection of Mr Durov’s rights and facilitate consular access”.
The post added that French authorities had not been cooperating with Russian officials.
Russian Foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova posted on Telegram asking whether Western human rights NGOs would be silent on Mr Durov’s arrest, after they criticised Russia’s decision to “create obstacles” to the work of Telegram in Russia in 2018.
Several Russian officials condemned the businessman’s arrest, saying it showed the West has double standards when it comes to free speech and democracy.
American whistleblower Edward Snowden, who has been living in exile in Russia since 2013, said on X that Mr Durov’s arrest “was an assault on the basic human rights of speech and association”.
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Elon Musk, the owner of X (formerly Twitter), has shown support for Pavel Durov, the CEO of Telegram, after Durov was arrested in France. Durov was detained for not doing enough to stop bad stuff like drug dealing, child sexual content, and fraud from happening on Telegram. Musk, who also gets criticized for how he handles content on X, thinks this arrest is a big deal for free speech.
Musk used X to express his concerns, even joking darkly about a future where you could get in serious trouble just for liking a funny picture online. He’s worried about what this means for freedom of speech in Europe and beyond.
Telegram is known for letting big groups chat, which some people say makes it easy for false info or harmful content to spread. Even though Telegram has taken down some bad groups, experts say it doesn’t control this kind of content as well as other platforms do.
This situation has sparked a lot of talk about how much control social media companies should have over what users post.
