Pavel Durov, the top executive at Telegram, has been released from police custody in France. He’s not off the hook yet though. Durov will soon appear in court to answer for a number of alleged crimes related to his popular messaging platform.
âAn investigating judge has ended Pavel Durovâs police custody and will have him brought to court for a first appearance and a possible indictment,â the Paris prosecutorâs office said in a statement shared with the Associated Press.
French authorities took Pavel into custody on Saturday. The government has said that his platform is being used to facilitate criminal activityânamely, drug trafficking and the spread of child sexual abuse material. While many large internet sites have struggled with the proliferation of drug activity (Meta and Snapchat) and child abuse material (see: Meta, X, and Mastodon, for example), French authorities claim that Durov has refused to share information with investigators about these issues, despite the fact that he is legally required to.
Durov, who was born in Russia, maintains French citizenship. He was arrested at a Paris airport after flying into the country on his private jet. Telegram itself is headquartered in the United Arab Emirates.
U.S. conservatives (like Elon Musk) have tried to make Pavel’s arrest into a “free speech” issue but the nature of the case isn’t yet fully known to the public. Meanwhile, Telegram has tried to discredit French authorities. âIt is absurd to claim that a platform or its owner are responsible for abuse of that platform,â a post shared on Telegram states, per AP. âAlmost a billion users globally use Telegram as means of communication and as a source of vital information. Weâre awaiting a prompt resolution of this situation. Telegram is with you all.â
Police are also currently looking for Durov’s brother, Nikolai, who is the co-founder of Telegram. It is unclear where Nikolai is currently located, Politico reports. The French government’s investigation into Telegram has been months in the making, the outlet notes.
Telegram touts itself as a private messenger but cryptography experts have long criticized the platform, arguing that its lack of default end-to-end encryption makes it a poor choice if you’re looking to keep your conversations private. If you want E2E on Telegram, you have to turn on a special feature for individual chats. E2E isn’t available at all for group chats, meaning that the ability to have truly private conversations of a caliber provided by WhatsApp or Signal is out of the question.
