As Maillochon and different French journalists went on to report, prosecutors had been secretly investigating Durov for months over his and Telegram’s alleged failure to dam criminality—which authorities declare included fraud, drug trafficking, little one sexual abuse materials (CSAM), organized crime, and terrorism—on the platform. The French Gendarmerie alone had counted 2,460 instances between 2013 and 2024 during which authorized requests made to Telegram had gone unanswered, in keeping with the outlet Libération. Maylis de Roeck, a spokesperson for the prosecutor’s workplace, informed WIRED that when her group realized simply what number of investigations throughout totally different departments had been being stymied by Telegram’s lack of response, they determined to challenge an arrest warrant. As they noticed it, Durov’s silence amounted to complicity.
Within the rapid aftermath of the arrest, nobody from Telegram commented publicly. One in every of Durov’s shut associates, George Lobushkin—the previous head of PR at VKontakte—told WIRED: “I’m in shock, and everybody near Pavel feels the identical. No person was ready for this example.” Lobushkin added that he frightened “loads” about Telegram’s future if Durov remained in custody.
Within the US, one of many first to react to the arrest was Tucker Carlson, the right-wing TV host. In a publish on X, Carlson referred to as Durov “a residing warning to any platform proprietor who refuses to censor the reality on the behest of governments and intel companies.” Elon Musk reposted a clip from Carlson’s interview and captioned it “#FreePavel.” Even Edward Snowden, a stern critic of Telegram’s safety claims, expressed alarm. “I’m shocked and deeply saddened that Macron has descended to the extent of taking hostages as a method for getting access to personal communications,” he wrote on X. Macron, for his half, issued an announcement that France was “deeply dedicated to freedom of expression,” including of the arrest: “It’s under no circumstances a political determination. It’s as much as the judges to rule on the matter.”
On the Sunday night after Durov’s arrest, his custody was prolonged to the 96-hour restrict. Based on Maillochon’s sources, he slept in a cramped cell, though investigators made the uncommon concession of letting Durov have a contemporary set of garments delivered. Beneath additional questioning, Durov reportedly claimed he hadn’t been unresponsive to takedown requests from legislation enforcement; police had merely despatched their requests to the mistaken place. (Durov made an identical declare in 2022 when Brazil’s supreme court docket briefly banned Telegram, primarily saying the court docket’s authorized requests had been misplaced within the mail.) Durov additionally stated he had been in contact with French intelligence companies about terrorism instances.
On August 28, almost 4 days after his arrest, Durov was formally indicted on six costs. Essentially the most critical—complicity within the administration of an internet platform to allow organized crime and illicit transactions—carried a most penalty of 10 years’ imprisonment, in addition to a €500,000 ($521,000) advantageous. With bail set at €5 million ($5.2 million) and swiftly paid, Durov was launched that night time however prohibited from leaving the nation. He was additionally ordered to report back to a police station twice per week.
The case in opposition to Durov, the CEO of an enormous mainstream platform, was unprecedented. And it got here at a second when his professed libertarian beliefs and laissez-faire perspective to content material moderation gave the impression to be ascendant. The small dimension of Durov’s group had really impressed Musk to fireside 80 p.c of Twitter’s workers when he took it over, in keeping with Character Restrict, a e-book by Kate Conger and Ryan Mac. Musk gutted the corporate’s moderation and trust-and-safety groups. If Durov may run a platform with about 60 full-time staff, most of them in Dubai, why not strive one thing related? Extra lately, Mark Zuckerberg fired Meta’s fact-checkers within the US and loosened the enforcement of guidelines in opposition to inflammatory content material on the corporate’s platforms. The “latest elections,” Zuckerberg stated, had been a “cultural tipping level towards as soon as once more prioritizing speech.”
