Telegram founder charged with a range of crimes and held in France
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Pavel Durov, the founder of the Telegram app, was charged yesterday in France with crimes related to illicit activity on the platform and barred from leaving the country.
It was a rare move to try to hold a top technology executive personally liable for the behavior of users on a major messaging platform. Telegram has featured in multiple criminal cases in France tied to child sexual abuse material, drug trafficking and online hate crimes, but has shown a “near-total absence” of replies to requests for cooperation, the Paris prosecutor said.
Background: Telegram has more than 900 million users globally. Light oversight has helped people living under authoritarian governments to communicate, but has also allowed for harmful content.
Telegram CEO Durov placed under formal investigation and banned from leaving France
Russian-born Pavel Durov, the CEO of messaging app Telegram, will be placed under formal investigation after four days of questioning by French police and is forbidden to leave French territory, Paris prosecutors said on Wedneday following Durov’s appearance in a Paris court. Durov was arrested outside of Paris on Saturday in a probe of 12 alleged crimes related to drug trafficking, the sale of child sexual abuse material and fraud on the messaging platform.
French authorities handed Telegram CEO Pavel Durov preliminary charges Wednesday for allowing alleged criminal activity on his messaging app, and barred him from leaving France pending further investigation.
Durov was detained on Saturday at Le Bourget airport outside Paris as part of a sweeping judicial inquiry opened last month, and released earlier Wednesday after four days of questioning. Investigative judges filed the preliminary charges Wednsday night and ordered him to pay 5 million euros bail and to report to a police station twice a week.
Allegations against the Russia-born Durov, who is a French citizen, include that his platform is being used for child sexual abuse material and drug trafficking, and that Telegram refused to share information or documents with investigators when required by law.
Durov’s arrest in France has caused outrage in Russia, with some government officials calling it politically motivated and proof of the West’s double standard on freedom of speech. The outcry has raised eyebrows among Kremlin critics because in 2018, Russian authorities themselves tried to block the Telegram app but failed, withdrawing the ban in 2020.
