Telegram’s Pavel Durov Charged For Allowing Criminal Activity On App

Pavel Durov, the Russian-born billionaire founder and owner of the Telegram messaging app, has been hit with multiple charges by French authorities.

The Guardian reported that 39 year-old Durov has been preliminary charged by the French judiciary for allegedly allowing criminal activity on the messaging app. However Durov on Wednesday was freed from jail on a €5m (£4.2m or $5.5m) bail, with other restrictions.

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

Content moderation

Last Saturday Durov had been arrested and placed in police custody at Le Bourget airport outside Paris, shortly after he landed on a private jet from Azerbaijan.

There has been media speculation that Durov’s visit to Azerbaijan was so he could meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin (who was visiting the same city at the same time), although Russian officials have denied the two had met.

At the time of his arrest sources indicated Durov had been arrested amid a police investigation into him allegedly allowing a wide range of crimes due to a lack of content moderators on Telegram and a lack of co-operation with police.

But it later emerged that the Paris Public Prosecutor’s Office had issued a warrant for Durov’s arrest over an investigation opened on 8 July into organised crime, drug trafficking, fraud, and the distribution of pornographic images of minors on the platform.

It is also alleged that Telegram refused to share information or documents with investigators when required by law.

On Sunday French judicial authorities had extended the detention of Pavel Durov.

Preliminary charges

Now the Guardian that Durov has been preliminary charged with a number of alleged violations on the messaging app, including complicity in the spread of sexual images of children.

After four days of questioning, Durov was granted release on condition that he report to a police station twice a week and remain in France, Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau reportedly said in a statement.

Durov lives in Dubai, and has French and United Arab Emirates citizenship.

It has also been reported that Durov still is also a citizen of Russia, as well as the Caribbean island nation of St. Kitts and Nevis.

His arrest had come as surprise to many, and demonstrated the consequences of alleged criminal liability on social media platforms for owners or senior management.

His arrest has also sparked debate over free speech and government censorship.

Telegram history

Dubai-based Telegram is widely used in countries across the former Soviet Union and Middle East, and is said to be the most popular instant messaging application in parts of Europe, Asia, and Africa.

Telegram was founded in 2013 by Nikolai and Pavel Durov and has been growing steadily since then. It is said to have close to 1 billion users.

Pavel Durov fully owns Telegram and he is estimated by Forbes to have a fortune of $15.5 billion.

Pavel Durov had left Russia in 2014 after he refused to comply with demands to shut down opposition communities on his VK social media platform, which he sold.

Russian authorities had previously accused Telegram of enabling terrorists to communicate in secret through the encrypted messaging and had blamed the app for concealing the messages of the suicide bomber who killed 15 people in St Petersburg in April 2017.

The app was also used by Islamic State for propaganda purposes in the past, especially by those based in Russia, but the company made efforts to clamp down on these terrorist accounts.

However Telegram has consistently refused to comply with demands Russia’s FSB Federal Security Service which wanted access to some messages for its work, including safeguarding against terrorist attacks, citing respect for user privacy.

Indeed, Durov has always been vocal against the sharing of confidential data with government entities.

False flag operation?

Durov has also dismissed questions about claims that Telegram was controlled by Russia as a false rumour spread by his competitors worried about Telegram’s growth.

“I would rather be free than to take orders from anyone,” Durov reportedly said about his exit from Russia.

Russia began blocking Telegram in 2018 after the app refused to comply with a court order granting state security services access to its users’ encrypted messages.

However in 2020, access to Telegram was restored in Russia, sparking speculation that Telegram could have ties to the Russian government – an allegation that Telegram continues to deny.

While Durov has at times cast himself as a Russian exile, leaked border data seen by the Guardian showed that he visited Russia more than 50 times between 2015 and 2021, leading to renewed speculation over his links to the Kremlin.