It was about two weeks ago that the founder and CEO of messaging app Telegram, Pavel Durov, was arrested in Paris by the French authorities.
The Russia-born tech billionaire was arrested while he was leaving his private jet at Le Bourget Airport. Following the arrest, Telegram released a statement stating that the social media platform is “awaiting a prompt resolution of this situation.”
At the time, French television network TF1 reported Durov being under a preliminary police investigation. The French authorities, meanwhile, have claimed his platform’s lack of content moderation.
The unwillingness of Telegram to cooperate with law enforcement makes its founder and CEO an accomplice to the money laundering, drug trafficking, fraud, cyberbullying, terrorism, organized crime, and sharing of child pornography that allegedly occur via the instant messaging app, as per the authorities.
So, the French authorities had a warrant out for not just Durov but also his mathematician brother Nikolai as part of a preliminary investigation into these allegations of Telegram’s ‘hands-off‘ approach to moderating content and, as a result, enabling criminality through it.
According to a statement from Telegram, the platform “abides by EU laws, including the Digital Services Act.“ The content moderation, as per Telegram, is “within industry standards and constantly improving.“ The messaging app further argued that it’s “absurd“ that a platform or its owner is responsible for the platform’s abuse.
While Durov has been granted bail on a bond of €5 million, he is barred from leaving the country and must sign in with the police twice a week. Du
“I’m still trying to understand what happened in France. But we hear the concerns. I made it my personal goal to prevent abusers of Telegram’s platform from interfering with the future of our 950+ million users.“
– Durov wrote after being released late last week
Since then, Durov has been spotted in Paris with his crypto coach girlfriend, who was also with him when he was arrested at the airport.
Durov’s arrest sparked widespread speculation and discussions surrounding encryption and free speech. In response, French President Emmanuel Macron made a post on X (previously Twitter), saying that Durov’s arrest on French soil has been part of an ongoing judicial investigation and is in no way a political decision.
“It is up to the judges to rule on the matter,“ wrote Macron, adding, “France is deeply committed to freedom of expression and communication, to innovation, and to the spirit of entrepreneurship. It will remain so.“
Telegram’s Massive Growth and Ambitious Plans
The 39-year-old Telegram CEO, according to Forbes’ estimates, is worth over $15 billion. Born in Russia, Durov left the country a decade ago and now resides in Dubai, where Telegram is based. Durov actually became a naturalized French citizen in August 2021.
Much like Telegram, Durov’s previous social network, VKontakte (VK), was also the target of authorities. Founded in 2006, VK is a popular Facebook alternative in Russia, which caught market attention for publicly offering Edward Snowden a job.
The Russian government asked Durov to release data on Ukrainian protest leaders, which he resisted. Eventually, he sold all his stake in the platform and fled Russia. “Me myself, I’m not a big fan of the idea of countries,“ Mr. Durov said at the time, mentioning being a “believer in free markets.”
In 2013, the Durov brothers founded Telegram, and its servers were distributed worldwide. A widely popular cloud-based messaging service, Telegram boasts 950 million active users today, much bigger than X. Just last month, Durov said that the goal is to reach 1 billion active users this year. Meanwhile, Telegram’s paid subscribers reached 10 million this month.
These impressive numbers are achieved by the social media platform with the help of only about 30 engineers, according to a video posted on X. In the clip, Durov also mentions that he’s the sole product manager at Telegram.
Interestingly, Telegram first surpassed 900 million users in March. At the time, Durov mentioned in an interview with the Financial Times that the company aims to be profitable next year. He also stated that Telegram plans to launch an app store and an in-app browser with support for Web3 pages.
This points to Telegram’s plans to accelerate the adoption of decentralized, permissionless Web3 tech on its platform.
The company has been working in the crypto sector for many years now. In 2018, it had a failed ICO, and in 2019, TON (The Open Network) was finally launched.
Initially known as “Telegram Open Network,“ this L1 smart contract blockchain was relaunched as “The Open Network“ under the TON Foundation.
The network offers services like TON Storage to upload and retrieve data globally with unique file IDs, TON Domain Name Service (DNS) that converts wallet addresses to human-readable names, TON Proxy to connect developers with blockchain applications securely and privately, and TON Sites to launch web services on its blockchain.
“Telegram’s next step is to build a set of decentralized tools, including non-custodial wallets and decentralized exchanges for millions of people to securely trade and store cryptocurrencies. This way, we can fix the wrongs caused by the current excessive centralization,“ wrote Durov in Nov. 2022, adding, “With technologies like TON reaching their potential, the blockchain industry should be finally able to deliver on its core mission – giving the power back to the people.”
Toncoin (TON) is the native token of the network and is used for transaction fees, reward validators, staking, and governance.
The day Durov was arrested, the $12.86bln market cap TON was trading around $6.85 only to lose more than 20% of its value within 24 hours. The token continued to drop in the following few days. The price went as low as $4.47 on Friday in tandem with the broad crypto market drop that saw BTC/USD going down to $52,550.
Over the weekend, some green has been seen, with TON/USD now trading at $5.10, still down 38.6% from its all-time high (ATH) of $8.25 hit in June this year. Meanwhile, the all-time low TON ever hit was $0.5194, as per CoinGecko, and the price is currently 880% above that.
The latest green in TON price could be the result of Durov committing to clean up Telegram as well as the general spike seen across the board after the sell-off last week. However, going forward, the price should continue to mirror developments from Durov and French authorities.
Back in July 2023, the CEO actually revealed that he owns TON cryptocurrency along with Bitcoin and, of course, Telegram. Around that time, Telegram also launched Wallet Pay, which allows merchants to accept payments in BTC, USDT, and TON through the platform.
Click here to learn how to buy “The Open Network” (TON) tokens.
A Global Debate Ensues on Freedom of Speech
Currently being used by hundreds of millions of users, Telegram has been growing significantly thanks to its user-friendly interface, speed, and privacy features.
Like many other social media platforms, Telegram has been dealing with the issue of scams and bots. A couple of months ago, Telegram announced plans to display the country and registration month for public accounts, addressing the problem of scams. The plan also includes a decentralized marketplace for third-party verification of channels.
Moreover, Telegram has been facing increased scrutiny from authorities worldwide, with France being the latest one. This time, the tech mogul was held for four days of questioning before he was released.
The French law enforcement agencies have filed preliminary charges, which require investigation before sentencing could be announced. In the case of Durov, as stated above, the authorities allege that Telegram is being used for a number of crimes, and the platform has refused to share any documents or information with investigators.
“In a state governed by the rule of law, freedoms are upheld within a legal framework, both on social media and in real life, to protect citizens and respect their fundamental rights. It is up to the judiciary, in full independence, to enforce the law.“
– French President Macron wrote on X a couple of days after Durov’s arrest
Telegram has called the charges and investigation over suspected complicity in various crimes “absurd“ and that its CEO has “nothing to hide.”
In the wake of Durov’s arrest, several questions arose regarding the threat of growing censorship of free speech, while detractors believe Telegram has been let out of control. His ban from leaving France also ignited a diplomatic uproar.
Earlier last week, the United Nations called this a “very complex“ case that raised a lot of concerns about human rights. Ravina Shamdasani, a spokeswoman for the UN Human Rights Office, also said that the organization was considering releasing a paper laying down “the parameters“ for these situations to be examined.
Besides talking about the Telegram case, Shamdasani pointed to Brazil’s recent suspension of X for alleged judicial transgressions. The blocking of Elon Musk’s X, according to her, raises similar concerns, which is about the duty of a country to make sure that online social networks adhere to the laws, but they need to be in line with international human rights standards.
“So, we are following this case, and it’s difficult for us to get more specific at this point,“ because of not having access to the complete information about the case and charges against Durov, said Shamdasani.
She further said that states should be able to regulate social media platforms, and these platforms must comply with human rights laws.
“The principles of legality, necessity and proportionality, hate speech, incitement to hatred or violence, harmful disinformation, need to be addressed.“
– Shamdasani
What’s Ahead for Telegram? Durov Explains & Implements
On Sept. 6, after being released from prison, Durov posted his first comments since the arrest and detailed, both on X and Twitter, what he thinks of the situation and just what’s ahead for the messaging app, which includes a commitment to moderation.
In his official announcement, which Durov started with his appreciation for all the support that he received, the founder called it “surprising“ that the French authorities found him “personally responsible for other people’s illegal use of Telegram“ because they didn’t receive a response from the platform.
He pointed out that not only did Telegram already have an official representative in the EU to handle such requests, but also, as a French citizen, the authorities had numerous ways to reach out to him.
Referring to the act of taking legal action against him, the CEO of the platform, for crimes committed by third parties rather than the service itself as archaic and ‘misguided,’ Durov stated, ‘No innovator will ever build new tools if they know they can be personally held responsible for potential abuse of those tools.
Used all across the world by the public, Durov pointed out how “establishing the right balance between privacy and security is not easy.“ As a global platform, one has to maintain the consistency of the processes globally while making sure that they are not being abused, said Durov.
Denying allegations of non-cooperation with European authorities, he emphasized prior collaboration with French authorities to establish a hotline for terrorism-related issues.
“We’ve been committed to engaging with regulators to find the right balance,“ said the CEO. He further stated that while by principle they will continue to protect users in authoritarian regimes, “we’ve always been open to dialogue.”
However, that is not to say that Telegram won’t make its departure from places where the right balance between privacy and security can’t be established by the regulators. “In those cases, we are ready to leave that country,“ wrote Durov in no unclear terms, giving the example of Russia and Iran.
“We’ve done it many times,“ said Durov, adding: “We are prepared to leave markets that aren’t compatible with our principles because we are not doing this for money. We are driven by the intention to bring good and defend the basic rights of people, particularly in places where these rights are violated.”
So, if French authorities demand “encryption keys“ in order to enable surveillance or act in other manners that don’t align with Telegram, the service may bid adieu to France as well.
However, the claims that “Telegram is some sort of anarchic paradise are absolutely untrue,“ stated Durov, noting that they already take down millions of harmful posts and channels every day and also publish daily transparency reports.
Also, Telegram itself is ready to work on its shortcomings, starting with having proper and clear routes for the authorities to reach out to and send requests.
Durov pointed to the “abrupt“ growth of the platform causing “growing pains that made it easier for criminals to abuse our platform,“ and that from here onwards, the goal is to significantly improve things.
Telegram has already started taking steps towards moderation. The updated FAQ page of Telegram states that there is now a “Report“ button that can be utilized to flag illegal content for moderators. The platform then provides instructions as to how to report content.
Previously, it clearly mentioned that private chats were protected from moderation requests. Having said that, the report option always existed but it has now been displayed more upfront on the FAQ.
As for the concerns regarding Telegram ending end-to-end encryption, the company called them “false rumors,“ saying they have “only made it clearer how to report content on Telegram, including via Europe’s DSA,“ which was always possible.
“Private chats are still private,“ said the company in the statement, adding that the app’s code is open source and free for anyone to check, so it can be seen easily that there are “no changes“ regarding how Telegram operates.
In a separate post, Durov also noted new changes, including replacing the People Nearby feature, which is used by less than 0.1% of users but is having issues with bots and scammers, with Businesses Nearby, which will show legitimate, verified businesses. These businesses will now be able to display product catalogs and accept payments seamlessly. New media uploads to the standalone blogging tool Telegraph have also been disabled.
“While 99.999% of Telegram users have nothing to do with crime, the 0.001% involved in illicit activities create a bad image for the entire platform, putting the interests of our almost billion users at risk.“
– Durov
Overall, the tech billionaire hopes the incident of his arrest will result in Telegram and the entire social networking industry becoming “safer and stronger.”
