The cause of free speech may have found a new icon in Russia-born tech tycoon Pavel Durov, who was arrested in Paris on August 24. Mr. Durov, 39, is the founder of Telegram, a cloud-based social media and instant messaging service with 950 million active users, which makes it bigger than X (540 million users).

French authorities had a warrant out for Mr. Durov and his brother Nikolai as part of a preliminary investigation into allegations that Telegram was enabling criminality through its ‘hands-off’ approach to moderating content. Mr. Durov, as the owner of Telegram, has been charged with complicity in a range of crimes, including drug trafficking, fraud, money-laundering, organised crime, terrorism, cyberbullying, dissemination of child pornographic materials, and refusal to cooperate with law enforcement. Though he has been granted bail on a bond of €5 million, he has been barred from leaving France and must sign in with the police twice a week.

Telegram, in a statement, has said that “it is absurd to claim that a platform or its owner are responsible for abuse of that platform”. a sentiment that goes to the heart of a growing conflict between owners of tech platforms and government regulators who want on-demand access to user information. Tech titans, most of whom veer libertarian in their politics, view these demands as violations of user privacy and free speech.

Mr. Durov, who describes Telegram as “a privacy-focussed social media platform” famously said in 2015, “Privacy, ultimately, is more important than our fear of bad things happening,” — a remark that endeared him to free speech evangelists.

EDITORIAL | ​Reasonable restrictions: On Telegram CEO Pavel Durov’s arrest and content hosting

Understandably, his arrest has sparked a fierce debate on the fine line between free speech rights and law enforcement. Edward Snowden, the celebrated whistleblower, had no doubt whatsoever, posting on X, “The arrest of @Durov is an assault on the basic human rights of speech and association. I am surprised that Macron has descended to the level of taking hostages as a means for gaining access to private communications.”

The French President defended the arrest, stating, “In a state governed by the rule of law, freedoms are upheld within a legal framework, both on social media and in real life.”

It has since emerged that Emmanuel Macron had met with Mr. Durov several times, was instrumental in fast-tracking his French citizenship,, and in 2018, had beseeched him to run Telegram out of France. Mr. Durov refused, preferring authoritarian Dubai to liberal France as Telegram headquarters. Indeed, Mr. Durov’s entrepreneurial career blurs easy stereotypes of ‘authoritarian’ and ‘democratic’. Right now, for instance, while his persecutor is a democracy that takes pride in championing ‘Liberte’, at the forefront of defending his liberty are two authoritarian regimes — Russia and the UAE. While the UAE has asked France to provide all consular services due to a UAE citizen, Russia has warned France against a politically motivated prosecution.

Fall-out with Moscow

Run-ins with governments are not new for Mr. Durov, whose net worth is estimated at $11.5 billion. Born in Soviet Leningrad in 1984, he grew up in Turin, Italy. While in university at St Petersburg, he discovered Facebook, which inspired him to create a Russian social network, VKontakte, in September 2006. It became a runaway success, garnering a valuation of $3 billion and 10 million users by April 2008. But he came under immense pressure from the government to shut down opposition communities. Mr. Durov refused, opting to sell Vkontakte and leave Russia. He then moved to Dubai and founded Telegram, which has become a haven for political dissidents and activists, as well as for terrorists and drug-traffickers — all attracted by the lax moderation on the platform.

In 2018, Russia banned Telegram after Mr. Durov refused to comply with requests to hand over data of Ukranian users. The ban was revoked in 2021, with Russia seemingly reconciled to Telegram’s style of operation. Ironically, Telegram is highly popular in both Ukraine and Russia – two countries at war, but united in their trust of a platform that puts user privacy above compliance with law enforcement requests. Both Ukrainian and Russian governments have been using Telegram for propaganda purposes. If France is building a case for Mr. Durov’s criminal complicity, it cannot ignore the fact that, as a Russian citizen, he refused to sell out Ukrainians to the Russian government.

Mr. Durov’s radical anti-establishment ethos comes through in a 2013 incident where he accidentally ran over a policeman in St Petersburg. In a reference to it, he posted on social media, “When you run over a policeman, it is important to drive back and forth so all the pulp comes out.” His arrest is certainly a departure in terms of holding a tech businessman responsible for the content on their platform. But the backlash it has triggered suggests it might remain an outlier event, unlikely to become the norm.

The investigation into Telegram boss Pavel Durov that has fired a warning shot to global tech titans was started by a small cybercrime unit within the Paris prosecutor’s office, led by 38-year-old Johanna Brousse.

The arrest of Durov, 39, last Saturday marks a significant shift in how some global authorities may seek to deal with tech chiefs reluctant to police illegal content on their platforms.

The arrest signalled the mettle of the J3 cybercrime unit, but the true test of its ambitions will be whether Brousse can secure a conviction based on a largely untested legal argument, lawyers said.

In an unprecedented move against a major tech CEO, prosecutors argued Durov bears responsibility for the alleged illegality on his platform, placing him under formal investigation on organized crime charges. He is suspected of complicity in running an online platform that allows the posting of child sex abuse images, drug trafficking and fraud. 

Durov’s lawyer said on Thursday it was “absurd” for him to be held responsible and that the app abided by European laws, echoing an earlier statement by Telegram itself.

Being placed under formal investigation in France does not imply guilt or necessarily lead to trial, but indicates judges consider there is enough evidence to proceed with the probe. Investigations can last years before being sent to trial or dropped. Durov is out on bail, but barred from leaving France.

Brousse’s unit began investigating Durov earlier this year after seeing his app being used for countless alleged crimes, and growing frustrated by the “almost total lack of response from Telegram to judicial requests”, Paris Prosecutor Laure Beccuau said on Wednesday.

Brousse declined to comment.

In an interview with newspaper Liberation in January, Brousse said her office was overseeing a growing number of probes involving Telegram and rival messaging app Discord, adding that tackling crime on them was “one of my battles”. 

Jason Citron, Discord’s CEO, did not respond to a request for comment. 

Brousse’s J3 cybercrime unit is France’s most important, with licence to prosecute nationwide. But it also is small, with just five prosecutors, well below the 55-60 cybercrime prosecutors in Switzerland, a 2022 parliamentary report found. With limited resources, they “prioritize the most serious crimes”, Brousse told Le Figaro last year.

Brousse said in a 2022 podcast appearance she wanted to be tough “so cybercriminals believe that if they attack France, they will be judged and punished very severely”.

“We want people to be prosecuted, either in their country … or in France through arrest warrants,” she said.

Her office was used to “extremely sensitive cases”, she added. “Sometimes, legal and geopolitical issues intersect.”

Patrick Perrot, who coordinates AI-assisted probes at the French gendarmerie and advises the Interior Ministry’s cybercommand unit, said the J3 had been innovative in seeking to prosecute cases that set an international precedent. 

“I think it shows that you can’t do whatever you want with these platforms,” he told Reuters. “It’s a real question for the future, because these platforms won’t stop multiplying, so the challenge of regulation is essential.”

TOUGH LEGAL GROUND?

Brousse has led the J3 since 2020, which has given her oversight of one of the most important – and controversial – French cybercrime cases ever. 

In late 2020, the J3 took charge of the probe into Sky ECC, which alongside Encrochat was one of the main encrypted communications services used by gangsters to buy drugs and weapons, or murder rivals. A few years earlier, French, Dutch and Belgian police had hacked into their servers, which were housed in northern France, giving French prosecutors jurisdiction over many of the resulting probes. 

There have been more than 6,500 arrests since the takedown of Encrochat in 2020, according to Europol, with the legality of the intercepts challenged in appeals courts across Europe.

Paul Krusky, the Canadian Encrochat boss, was extradited in February from the Dominican Republic to France, where he now awaits trial. Lawyers for Sky ECC’s Jean-François Eap are contesting his French arrest warrant.

Stephane Bonifassi, Eap’s lawyer, said his client was innocent, adding that “Sky ECC was not conceived as a tool for criminals, nor commercialized as such”.

Krusky’s lawyer, Antoine Vey, said his client was innocent.

“The service set up by Paul Krusky, like other services that have enjoyed global success, was only intended to protect the privacy and freedom of exchange of its users, and in no case to support criminal activities,” Vey said in a statement.

Two other French lawyers who have worked on Sky ECC and Encrochat cases told Reuters that these earlier probes gave prosecutors the ambition – and a blueprint – to target Durov.

Robin Binsard, who has fought Encrochat cases at France’s top court, said prosecutors would need to prove that Durov knew and approved of the criminality on the app, calling their argument “totally questionable”.

The fact that Telegram didn’t comply with law enforcement requests “does not automatically make one an accomplice to a criminal project”, he added.

Binsard said it was clear “France is pursuing encrypted messaging providers”, and that other operators of such apps, such as Signal, “should be concerned about whether or not they are in compliance with French regulations. Because the message is clear if they are not, legal action will take place”.

Signal did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

A source at the Paris prosecutor’s office said the Sky ECC probe had no links to the Telegram investigation.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

French President Emmanuel Macron during a press conference on August 29, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AP

French President Emmanuel Macron has defended his decision to give special fast-track citizenship to Telegram messaging app CEO Pavel Durov, who is now under preliminary charges in France over alleged criminal activity on his popular platform.

Mr. Macron on Thursday (August 29, 2024) also said he was unaware that Durov was coming to France before his surprise weekend arrest, and had no plans to meet with him.

Free-speech advocates, far-right figures and authoritarian governments around the world have spoken out in Durov’s defence and criticised French authorities over the case. Durov was freed on 5 million euro bail but barred from leaving France and ordered to report to a police station twice a week pending further investigation.

French prosecutors accuse Durov of complicity in allowing drug trafficking and sharing of sexual images of children on Telegram, and of refusing to cooperate with authorities investigating illegal activity on the app.

Durov’s lawyer David-Olivier Kaminski told French media, “It’s totally absurd to think that the person in charge of a social network could be implicated in criminal acts that don’t concern him, directly or indirectly.” The case has called attention to the challenges of policing illegal activity online — and to the Russia-born Durov’s unusual biography and multiple passports.

Speaking at a news conference while on a visit to Serbia, Macron said France supports freedom of expression and the liberty of entrepreneurs. He said that approving Durov’s request for French nationality — like high-profile sports stars, performers and others who contribute to France’s wealth and learn French — was ‘good for our country.” He also mentioned Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel, who like Durov won French citizenship not through the normal difficult and bureaucratic process but via a special process for ‘merited foreigners’.

French satirical and investigative newspaper Le Canard Enchaine reported that Durov told police upon his arrest Saturday that he was planning to meet Mr.Macron.

Mr. Macron denied that. “I was absolutely not aware of Mr Durov’s arrival in France,” he said, adding, “It is false that I offered any kind of invitation to him…His arrest was an independent act of French justice.”

Paris:

President Emmanuel Macron on Monday denied any political link to the arrest of Telegram founder Pavel Durov as the tech tycoon spent a second day in French custody following his surprise arrest at a Paris airport.

Numerous questions have been raised about the timing and circumstances of Durov’s detention.

Sources close to the case said Durov is accused of failing to curb the spread of illegal content on Telegram, which has over 900 million users. The company has dismissed the accusations.

Born in Soviet times into a family of academics in Leningrad, now known as Saint Petersburg, Durov spent his childhood in Italy before building up Russia’s then-biggest social network VKontakte (VK) in his early 20s. He set up Telegram after leaving Russia a decade ago and Forbes magazine estimates his current fortune at $15.5 billion.

Writing on the X social media platform that he was addressing “false information” concerning the case, Macron said Durov’s arrest “took place as part of an ongoing judicial investigation.” 

“It is in no way a political decision. It is up to the judges to rule on the matter,” he wrote in a highly unusual comment on a legal case.

Durov, 39, holds a French passport in addition to his Russian nationality.

– ‘Nothing to hide’ –

An investigating magistrate extended Durov’s detention on Sunday,  according to a source close to the investigation. The initial detention for questioning can last up to 96 hours.

When this period ends, the magistrate can either free Durov or press charges and remand him in custody.

Durov, who has been based in Dubai in recent years, arrived in Paris from the Azerbaijani capital Baku, and was planning to have dinner in the French capital, a source close to the case said.

He was accompanied by a bodyguard and a personal assistant who always travelled with him, added the source, asking not to be named.

One key question is why Durov flew into France when he would have likely been aware he was wanted in the country. “Perhaps he had a feeling of impunity,” said a source close to the case, asking not to be named.

Russian President Vladimir Putin was in Baku on a state visit to Azerbaijan on August 18 and 19 but Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied that the pair had met.

Durov is accused of failing to take action to curb the criminal use of his platform.

France’s OFMIN, an office tasked with preventing violence against minors,  issued an arrest warrant for Durov in a preliminary investigation into alleged offences including fraud, drug trafficking, cyberbullying, organised crime and promotion of terrorism, another source said. 

Telegram said in response that “Durov has nothing to hide and travels frequently in Europe.”

“Telegram abides by EU laws, including the Digital Services Act — its moderation is within industry standards,” it added.

“It is absurd to claim that a platform or its owner is responsible for the abuse of that platform.”

– ‘Enforce the law’ –

Telegram has positioned itself as a “neutral” alternative to US-owned platforms, which have been criticised for their commercial exploitation of users’ personal data. 

It also plays a key role since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, used actively by politicians and commentators on both sides of the war.

But critics accuse it of hosting often illegal content ranging from extreme sexual imagery to disinformation and also narcotics services.

Kremlin spokesman Peskov said Moscow had received no information from France on why Durov was detained, saying “we do not know concretely what Durov is accused of”.

Elon Musk, who leads the Tesla car group and X, formerly Twitter, posted the hashtag #FreePavel on his platform and commented in French, “Liberte Liberte! Liberte?” (Freedom Freedom! Freedom?).

Macron said that while France is “deeply committed to freedom of expression and communication” such freedoms are “upheld within a legal framework, both on social media and in real life”.

“It is up to the judiciary, in full independence, to enforce the law,” he said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)