What is Telegram and why was its CEO arrested in Paris?

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 26/08/2024 (753 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Pavel Durov, the founder and CEO of the messaging app Telegram, was arrested in Paris over the weekend over allegations that his platform is being used for illicit activity including drug trafficking and the distribution of child sexual abuse images.

Durov, who was born in Russia, spent much 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 arriving from Azerbaijan and released Wednesday after four days of questioning. He was ordered to pay 5 million euros for bail and directed to report to a police station twice a week, according to the Paris prosecutor’s office.

In a statement posted to its platform, Telegram said it abides by EU laws and its content moderation is “within industry standards and constantly improving.” Durov, the company added, “has nothing to hide and travels frequently in Europe.”

Here are some details on Telegram, the app at the center of Durov’s arrest.

What is Telegram?

Telegram is an app that allows for one-on-one conversations, group chats and large “channels” that let people broadcast messages to subscribers. Unlike rivals such as Meta’s WhatsApp, Telegram’s group chats allow as many as 200,000 people, compared to a maximum of 1,024 for WhatsApp. Experts have raised concerns that misinformation spreads easily in group chats of that size.

Telegram offers users end-to-end encryption for their communications, but — contrary to a popular misconception — this feature is not on by default. Users have to switch on the option. It also doesn’t work with group chats. That contrasts with rival Signal and Facebook Messenger, where chats are encrypted end-to-end by default.

“Popular Telegram features like group chats and channels are not end-to-end encrypted. That means that Telegram can access their contents,” said John Scott-Railton, senior researcher at the University of Toronto’s Citizenlab. “Similarly, messages between users are not end-to-end encrypted by default, which means that Telegram could also access these messages. Only Telegram’s opt-in ‘secret chat’ feature is end-to-end encrypted, which would prevent Telegram from accessing the chat contents.”

Telegram says it has more than 950 million active users. It is widely used in France as a messaging tool, including by some officials in the presidential palace and in the ministry behind the investigation into Durov. But French investigators have also found the app has been used by Islamic extremists and drug traffickers.

Telegram was launched in 2013 by Durov and his brother Nikolai. According to Telegram, Pavel Durov supports the app “financially and ideologically while Nikolai’s input is technological.”

Before Telegram, Durov founded VKontakte, Russia’s largest social network. The company came under pressure amid the Russian government’s crackdown after mass pro-democracy protests rocked Moscow at the end of 2011 and 2012. Durov said government authorities demanded that the VKontakte take down the online communities of Russian opposition activists. It later asked the platform to hand over the personal data of users who took part in the 2013 uprising in Ukraine, which eventually ousted a pro-Kremlin president.

But Durov sold his stake in VKontakte after pressure from Russian authorities in 2014. He also left the country. Today, Telegram is based in Dubai, which Durov called “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 talk show host Tucker Carlson.

Why was Durov arrested?

On Wednesday, French authorities handed preliminary charges to Durov for allowing alleged criminal activity on Telegram and barred him from leaving France pending further investigation. Allegations against Durov 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.

The first preliminary charge against him was for “complicity in managing an online platform to allow illicit transactions by an organized group,” a crime that can carry a sentence of up to 10 years in prison and 500,000 euro fine, the prosecutor’s office said.

Preliminary charges under French law mean magistrates have strong reason to believe a crime was committed but allow more time for further investigation.

What has been the response?

There was no immediate comment from Durov or Telegram to the charges.

In Russia, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to comment on reports of Durov’s arrest in France.

“We still don’t know what exactly Durov is being accused of,” Peskov said Monday during his daily media conference call. “We haven’t heard any official statements on that matter.”

“Let’s wait until the charges are announced — if they are announced,” Peskov said.

Russian government officials have expressed outrage at Durov’s detention, with some calling it politically motivated and proof of the West’s double standard on freedom of speech. The outcry has raised eyebrows among Kremlin critics: In 2018 Russian authorities themselves tried to block Telegram but failed, withdrawing the ban in 2020.

Elsewhere, Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of X who has called himself a “ free speech absolutist,” has been speaking out in support of Durov and posted ”#freePavel” following the arrest.

“It is absurd to claim that a platform or its owner are responsible for abuse of that platform,” Telegram’s post after the arrest said. “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 often criticized Telegram for a lack of content moderation, which experts say opens up the messaging platform for potential use in money laundering, drug trafficking and the sharing of material linked to the sexual exploitation of minors.

Compared to other messaging platforms, Telegram is “less secure (and) more lax in terms of policy and detection of illegal content,” said David Thiel, a Stanford University researcher, who has investigated the use of online platforms for child exploitation, at its Internet Observatory.

In addition, Telegram “appears basically unresponsive to law enforcement,” Thiel said, adding 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 at the time) against the operators of Telegram for failing to comply with German law. The Federal Office of Justice said that Telegram FZ-LLC hasn’t established a lawful way for reporting illegal content or named an entity in Germany to receive official communication.

Both are required under German laws that regulate large online platforms.

Last year, Brazil temporarily suspended Telegram over its failure to surrender data on neo-Nazi activity related to a police inquiry into school shootings in November.

___

Associated Press Writers Barbara Surk in Nice, France, and Daria Litvinova in Tallinn, Estonia contributed to this story.