Telegram CEO Freed From Custody In France

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News

PARIS/TEHRAN/BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – French prosecutors on Wednesday freed Telegram CEO Pavel Durov from police custody after four days of questioning over allegations that his social media platform and messaging application is being used for illegal activities in a case that high-profile critics said was about censoring content.

Officials said Durov was transferred to a court for a possible indictment. The case was closely followed by media outlets, including Worthy News, which has been struggling to circumvent what it views as tech giants’ censorship.

Durov, 39, a reclusive tech billionaire, holds citizenship in the United Arab Emirates and France.

He was detained Saturday at Le Bourget airport outside Paris as part of a judicial inquiry opened last month involving 12 alleged criminal violations.

“An investigating judge has ended Pavel Durov’s police custody and will have him brought to court for a first appearance and a possible indictment,” the Paris prosecutor’s office said.

Allegations against the Russia-born Durov, who is a French citizen, include that his platform is being used for child sexual abuse material and drug trafficking, fraud, and abetting organized crime transactions and that Telegram refused to share information or documents with investigators when required by law.

However, Telegram and its chief executive, Durov, suggested that the detention was part of broader European Union efforts to censor content threatening the EU narrative.

EU LAWS

“Telegram abides by EU laws, including the Digital Services Act — its moderation is within industry standards and constantly improving. Telegram’s CEO Pavel Durov has nothing to hide and travels frequently in Europe,” Telegram said on its news channel.

Dubai-based Telegram added, “It is absurd to claim that a platform or its owner is responsible for the abuse of that platform. Almost a billion users globally use Telegram as a means of communication and as a source of vital information.”

Durov also blamed traditional media for the growing pressure on platforms such as Telegram. “All large social media apps are easy targets for criticism due to the content they host. I can’t recall any major social platform whose moderation has been consistently praised by traditional media,” he wrote on his Telegram channel.

“The media coverage of Meta’s moderation efforts has been particularly negative for most of its history. Interestingly enough, Meta was also the first social media company to have reached a trillion-dollar-plus valuation,” he recalled.

“Telegram will likely have to go through similar growth stages before it surpasses legacy platforms. As we rapidly rise in scale and significance, we shall solve any potential challenges the same way we do everything else — with efficiency, innovation, and respect for privacy and freedom of speech.”

French President Emmanuel Macron said Monday there was no political motive behind the arrest of Pavel Durov, the Russian-born founder of the social media platform and messaging application Telegram.

Macron’s comments on social media platform X were the first presidential confirmation of Durov’s arrest after he was detained at Le Bourget airport outside Paris after landing on a private jet from Azerbaijan.

JUDICIAL INVESTIGATION

“The arrest of the Telegram president on French territory took place as part of an ongoing judicial investigation,” Macron wrote. “This is in no way a political decision. It is up to the judges to decide.”

Yes, Durov’s arrest has sparked a debate over the balance of online safety and free expression. One side describes the tech executive as a free speech martyr, and others underline Telegram’s long history of ignoring law enforcement requests over illicit activity.

In Iran, where Telegram is widely used despite being officially banned after years of protests challenging the country’s strict Islamic rulers, Durov’s arrest was welcomed by the Islamic Republic’s supreme leader. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei weighed in with veiled praise for France for being “strict” against those who “violate your governance” of the internet.

Founded in 2013, Telegram now has over 900 million users, the platform days, making it among the most popular messaging services in the world.

The platform is known for “channels,” or sprawling group chats of hundreds of thousands of people often organized around live news events, like the war in Ukraine, or political and investing topics.

Experts say Telegram channels and most one-on-one conversations are not encrypted by default.

However, users can turn on end-to-end encryption in individual chats, putting the chat logs outside the reach of law enforcement since Telegram itself would not have a record of what was shared or said.

SECURITY FEATURES

The level of security, which is also featured in chats on competing messaging services WhatsApp and Signal, can be used for protection from prying governments, but regulators say they also help bad actors to conduct covert and illegal activities

However, there is concern that EU regulators are increasingly trying to influence content that is not in line with the Brussels narrative on issues such as the climate of gender equality and the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East.

“France just arrested Pavel Durov, founder & CEO of the encrypted, uncensored Telegram platform. The need to protect free speech has never been more urgent,” noted Robert F Kennedy Jr, who abandoned his U.S. presidential campaign Friday and endorsed Republican Donald J. Trump.

Elon Musk, the head of social media platform X, and Chris Pavlovski, the chief executive officer of the Ruble video-sharing platform, asked for Pavel’s release.

“I’m a little late to this, but for good reason— I’ve just safely departed from Europe. France has threatened Rumble, and now they have crossed a red line by arresting Telegram’s CEO, Pavel Durov, reportedly for not censoring speech,” he wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.

“Rumble will not stand for this behavior and will use every legal means available to fight for freedom of expression, a universal human right. We are currently fighting in the courts of France, and we hope for Pavel Durov’s immediate release,” he added in his comments monitored by Worthy News.

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