Whether it be the EU charging Elon Musk for letting disinformation run wild on X or Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s data-sharing scandal hearing in front of the US Senate, social media moguls are no strangers to confrontations with governments.
Until now, however, none had faced serious legal action – let alone law enforcement officers at an airport.
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On Saturday (24 August), French authorities bucked this trend and arrested Telegram co-founder Pavel Durov at Paris’ Le Bourget Airport.
In a statement released on Wednesday (28 August), French prosecutors said Durov was under investigation for failing to prevent illegal activity, namely transactions by organised gangs, on Telegram. Durov’s other alleged charges include refusal to communicate with authorities and complicity in the organised criminal distribution of child sexual abuse images.
What changes will Telegram make to its moderation policies?
Last night, Paris prosecutors said Durov, a Russian-born billionaire with French citizenship, has been placed under judicial supervision. The Telegram boss is not allowed to leave France and has to pay a €5m ($5.6m) deposit.
Durov’s arrest comes days after investigations found that Yemeni weapons dealers were using Telegram, X and other social media platforms to advertise arms deals. Many accounts are linked with the Iranian-backed, US-sanctioned Houthi militia in Yemen.
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By GlobalDataTelegram, which is Dubai-based but founded by Durov in Russia in 2013, is built on a model of ‘complete free speech’ and minimal moderation – immensely useful for pro-democracy movements under authoritarian regimes in, for example, Iran, Myanmar or Belarus.
It also makes Telegram a hotspot for misinformation, however. Far-right figures in the UK including Stephen Yaxley-Lennon (alias Tommy Robinson) made prominent use of the platform to spread racist rhetoric and disinformation during a recent spate of riots.
“Telegram does have content moderation in place, but it remains insufficient,” Aleksandr Valentij, cybersecurity lead at digital security firm Surfshark, tells Verdict.
“The platform is home to a significant amount of illegal and harmful content and has unfortunately become a haven for individuals engaged in various criminal activities, including war crimes, terrorism, child exploitation, hacking and black-market operations.”
Telegram had not responded to Verdict’s request for comment at the time of publication.
Telegram in military crosshairs?
In a similar fashion to the brazen advertisements of Houthi-linked arms dealers, Telegram has also become synonymous with militaristic mobilisation.
“A lesser-known but critical concern is that Telegram is reportedly being used to coordinate Russian military activities in Ukraine,” Valentij says. “This includes everything from communication between units to the recruitment of agents and the sharing of coordinates by collaborators for missile strikes.”
Pro-Kremlin military bloggers aside, Russian army figures openly use Telegram. Amid reports of Ukraine successfully testing its first domestic-made ballistic missile on Wednesday (28 August), Vyacheslav Gladkov, governor of the Belgorod region, used the platform to release a statement saying Ukrainian special forces had attempted an incursion into Belgorod.
Telegram is also home to thousands of war-related forums, from Russian Wagner mercenaries to Ukrainians seeking real-time updates on air raids and loved ones.
Durov’s arrest prompted a wave of posts by Russian military analysts and politicians bemoaning the lack of a ubiquitous, secure messaging service for the Russian army.
“It will be very sad and funny at the same time if it is Durov’s arrest that becomes the catalyst for changes in the Russian armed forces’ approach to communication,” read a post by Rybar, a Telegram account with 1.3 million subscribers founded by a former Russian defence ministry official.
Durov is not the only social media mogul having to watch his back.
While not used for military communications purposes, X has also come under heavy scrutiny of late for slack moderation of illegal and misinformative content.
X owner Musk, who has described moderation as a “propaganda word” for censorship, has defended Durov and called for his release.
Musk has engaged in several political spats in recent months, namely with Prime Minister Keir Starmer amid X’s inflammatory role in the UK’s far-right riots, and Brazilian Supreme Court judge Alexandre de Moraes, who ordered a block on accounts accused of spreading misinformation. Brazil looks poised to restrict X.
In the past, Zuckerberg, Musk and other technocrats have largely escaped with a fine – the sums little more than a slap on the wrist for some of the world’s richest men.
By arresting Durov, French authorities have set a strong precedent for the rest of the EU to follow as the bloc seeks to enforce its sweeping Digital Services Act.
