Telegram founder Pavel Durov’s arrest sets up free speech battle

Mr Pavel Durov’s laissez-faire attitude to regulation made his messaging app, Telegram, into a giant and gave him a platform to clash with officials from Moscow to Brussels from his perch in Dubai.

His decision to repeatedly ignore requests, from democratic and authoritarian governments alike, to better moderate content on his platform reached a tipping point this weekend, when he was detained in France over allegations that Telegram failed to adequately combat crime on the app, including the spread of child sexual abuse material.

Telegram has been reluctant to remove all but the most violent content under Mr Durov, who has a net worth of US$9.2 billion (S$12 billion), according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

The 39-year-old has styled himself as a radical libertarian and cultivates a look riffing off of actor Keanu Reeves’ Neo character in The Matrix, usually sporting an all-black wardrobe. With passports from the United Arab Emirates and France, he often documents his globe-trotting life, recently posting pictures of his travels throughout Central Asia.

Despite the carefree image, Mr Durov faces heightened pressure to monetise Telegram, which is free to use. Ahead of a US$2.4 billion bond maturing in March 2026, the platform has been trying to make money off of its 900 million users. 

Mr Durov’s arrest is all but certain to complicate efforts to take the company public, a route he has indicated he favours over selling it at valuations he claims are in excess of US$30 billion.

It also sets up a battle over free speech, with X owner Elon Musk and former US National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden among those who have condemned the arrest.

Mr Durov is being interrogated as part of a case initiated by a cyber-crime unit of the Paris prosecutor’s office. Investigative judges handling the case are looking into a wide range of allegations, which include refusing to help the authorities run legal wiretaps on suspects, enabling the sale of child sexual abuse material, and aiding and abetting drug trafficking.

“It is absurd to claim that a platform or its owner is responsible for abuse of that platform,” Telegram said in a statement on Aug 25. “We’re awaiting a prompt resolution of this situation.”

Mr Durov could not be reached for comment.

Lightning rod

Telegram has long been a lightning rod for controversy. European Union officials argue that it fuels disinformation, including conspiracy theories that sparked recent anti-immigrant rioting in the UK and allegations that Russian intelligence services used the site to recruit agents. The EU has looked at how the platform reports its number of users to see if it can apply its Digital Services Act to force Mr Durov to better moderate content.

EU officials argue that Telegram fuels disinformation and promotes pro-Kremlin propaganda. Russia, on its part, tried and failed to block the app after it refused to turn over user messages.

Telegram releases very little financial information, making pinning down its value more difficult compared with many other social media and messaging platforms. Mr Durov is the sole owner of the company, according to US Securities and Exchange Commission filings.

Telegram is unique among major social media networks in that it does not use algorithms to promote content to its users. Instead, users subscribe to channels and see posts and videos in chronological order. While this lets the platform argue that it serves users only what they choose to see, bad actors have exploited the platform’s structure by posting inflammatory content in mainstream channels and then bringing new followers into more radicalised chat communities.

The site played a central role in coordinating violent demonstrations in August in the UK, where anti-migrant demonstrators clashed with police and threatened immigrant communities, said Mr Moustafa Ayad, an executive director at the Institute of Strategic Dialogue, a think-tank that tracks extremism.

Others have used Telegram to disseminate bomb-making instructions and guides on how to shoot at US power stations as part of plans to cause havoc.

Before Telegram, Mr Durov founded Facebook-lookalike VKontakte in 2006, which grew to become Russia’s biggest social network thanks in part to the easy sharing of pirated movies and music. In 2012, he and a colleague threw 5,000 rouble notes – worth more than US$150 each at the time – from their office window in central St Petersburg. 

Mr Durov also took a stand against Russia’s KGB successor, the Federal Security Service, when it sought to get VKontakte to shut down protest groups that formed in 2011.

Mr Durov ultimately was forced to sell his stake in VKontakte. He claims he left Russia after refusing to turn over data on Ukrainian users during the country’s 2013 Maidan protests, which led to the overthrow of its pro-Kremlin leader Viktor Yanukovych. BLOOMBERG