Pavel Durov, the founder and CEO of the favored messaging app Telegram, was arrested in Paris over the weekend over allegations that his platform is getting used for illicit exercise reminiscent of drug trafficking and the distribution of kid sexual abuse photographs.
Durov, who was born in Russia, spent a lot 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 taken into custody at Paris-Le Bourget Airport in France on Saturday after touchdown from Azerbaijan.
In an announcement posted to its platform, Telegram stated it abides by EU legal guidelines and its content material moderation is “within industry standards and constantly improving.” Durov, the corporate added, “has nothing to hide and travels frequently in Europe.”
Listed here are some particulars on Telegram, the app on the middle of Durov’s arrest.
WHAT IS TELEGRAM?
Telegram is an app that permits for one-on-one conversations, group chats and enormous “channels” that allow folks broadcast messages to subscribers. Not like rivals reminiscent of Meta’s WhatsApp, Telegram’s group chats enable as many as 200,000 folks, in comparison with a most of 1,024 for WhatsApp. Consultants have raised issues that misinformation spreads simply in group chats of this dimension.
Telegram presents encryption for his or her communications, however — opposite to a preferred false impression — this characteristic isn’t on by default. Customers have to modify on the choice to encrypt their chats. It additionally doesn’t work with group chats. That contrasts with rival Sign and Fb Messenger, the place chats are encrypted end-to-end by default.
Telegram says it has greater than 950 million lively customers. It’s broadly utilized in France as a messaging software, together with by some officers within the presidential palace and within the ministry behind the investigation into Durov. However French investigators have additionally discovered the app has been utilized by Islamic extremists and drug traffickers.
Telegram was launched in 2013 by Durov and his brother Nikolai. In keeping with Telegram, Pavel Durov helps the app “financially and ideologically while Nikolai’s input is technological.”
Earlier than Telegram, Durov based VKontakte, Russia’s largest social community. The corporate got here underneath stress amid the Russian authorities’s crackdown after mass pro-democracy protests rocked Moscow on the finish of 2011 and 2012. Durov stated authorities authorities demanded that the VKontakte take down the web communities of Russian opposition activists. It later requested the platform at hand over the private information of customers who took half within the 2013 rebellion in Ukraine, which finally ousted a pro-Kremlin president.
However Durov offered his stake in VKontakte after stress from Russian authorities in 2014. He additionally left the nation. Immediately, Telegram relies in Dubai, which Durov known as “the best place for a neutral platform like ours to be in if we want to make sure we can defend our users’ privacy and freedom of speech” in an April interview with conservative speak present host Tucker Carlson.
WHY WAS DUROV ARRESTED?
French media has reported that Durov was detained on an arrest warrant alleging his platform has been used for cash laundering, drug trafficking and different offenses. As of Monday afternoon, he had not been charged, and few particulars had been obtainable on the investigation.
On Sunday night time, a French investigative decide prolonged Durov’s detention order, French media reported on Monday. Underneath French regulation, Durov can stay in custody for questioning for as much as 4 days. After that, judges should resolve to both cost him or launch him.
WHAT HAS BEEN THE RESPONSE?
In Russia, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to touch upon reviews of Durov’s arrest in France.
“We still don’t know what exactly Durov is being accused of,” Peskov stated Monday throughout his day by day media convention name. “We haven’t heard any official statements on that matter.”
“Let’s wait until the charges are announced – if they are announced,” Peskov stated.
Russian authorities officers have expressed outrage at Durov’s detention, with some calling it politically motivated and proof of the West’s double customary on freedom of speech. The outcry has raised eyebrows amongst Kremlin critics: in 2018 Russian authorities themselves tried to dam Telegram however failed, withdrawing the ban in 2020.
Elsewhere, Elon Musk, the billionaire proprietor of X who has known as himself a “ free speech absolutist,” has been talking out in help of Durov and posted ”#freePavel” following the arrest.
In an announcement posted on its platform after his arrest, Telegram stated it abides by EU legal guidelines, and its moderation is “within industry standards and constantly improving.”
“It is absurd to claim that a platform or its owner are responsible for abuse of that platform,” Telegram’s put up stated. “Almost a billion users globally use Telegram as a means of communication and as a source of vital information. We’re awaiting a prompt resolution of this situation. Telegram is with you all.”
DOES TELEGRAM MODERATE CONTENT?
Western governments have usually criticized Telegram for an absence of content material moderation, which specialists say opens up the messaging platform for potential use in cash laundering, drug trafficking and the sharing of fabric linked to the sexual exploitation of minors.
In comparison with different messaging platforms, Telegram is “less secure (and) more lax in terms of policy and detection of illegal content,” stated David Thiel, a Stanford College researcher, who has investigated the usage of on-line platforms for youngster exploitation, at its Web Observatory.
As well as, Telegram “appears basically unresponsive to law enforcement,” Thiel stated, including that messaging service WhatsApp “submitted over 1.3 million CyberTipline reports in 2023 (and) Telegram submits none.”
In 2022, Germany issued fines of 5.125 million euros ($5 million) in opposition to the operators of Telegram for failing to adjust to German regulation. The Federal Workplace of Justice stated that Telegram FZ-LLC hasn’t established a lawful means for reporting unlawful content material or named an entity in Germany to obtain official communication.
Each are required underneath German legal guidelines that regulate giant on-line platforms.
Final yr, Brazil briefly suspended Telegram over its failure to give up information on neo-Nazi exercise associated to a police inquiry into faculty shootings in November.
Telegram stated in response to the arrest that it abides by EU legal guidelines and its content material moderation is “within industry standards and constantly improving.”
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Related Press Writers Barbara Surk in Good, France, and Daria Litvinova in Tallinn, Estonia contributed to this story.
