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Messaging app Telegram has mentioned its chief government has “nothing to cover” after French authorities detained Pavel Durov on the weekend for alleged failures in content material moderation.
In a shock transfer that has escalated the worldwide debate over free speech and raised tensions with Moscow, the Russia-born billionaire was arrested at Paris-Le Bourget airport when he arrived within the nation on his personal jet from Azerbaijan on Saturday night, in response to French information company AFP.
The Paris prosecutor’s workplace has confirmed an lively investigation into Durov, and French media have reported he’s alleged to have did not reasonable adequately felony exercise on the platform.
In an announcement on Sunday, Dubai-based Telegram mentioned its moderation was “inside business requirements and continually bettering”, including that it was abiding by EU legal guidelines together with the Digital Providers Act. The laws, which got here into drive this 12 months, requires platforms to police dangerous content material and disinformation extra intently, or danger penalties or being restricted within the bloc.
“It’s absurd to say {that a} platform or its proprietor are answerable for abuse of that platform,” Telegram mentioned. “We’re awaiting a immediate decision of this example. Telegram is with you all.”
Durov’s detainment marks probably the most drastic nationwide motion in opposition to a social media chief up to now and threatens to additional ignite international debate over whether or not platforms ought to prioritise on-line security or free speech. Free speech proponents equivalent to Elon Musk have been hitting out at French authorities, with the billionaire proprietor of rival platform X posting the hashtag “#freepavel” on his platform.
French authorities had been investigating whether or not Telegram’s moderation failures had helped facilitate criminal activity together with terrorism, drug peddling, cash laundering, fraud and youngster exploitation, in response to a number of French tv shops. Some reviews prompt there had been a warrant out for Durov’s arrest, however Telegram on Sunday mentioned the entrepreneur “has nothing to cover and travels ceaselessly in Europe”.
Durov has been generally known as the “Mark Zuckerberg of Russia” after co-founding the nation’s hottest social media community, VKontakte, in his native St Petersburg in 2007. He fled Russia in 2014 after allegedly refusing to adjust to Moscow’s calls for for entry to the information of Ukrainian customers protesting in opposition to a pro-Russia administration.
Based in 2013, Telegram has exploded in reputation, nearing 1bn customers and changing into one of many key communication instruments in battle zones and humanitarian crises such because the Russia-Ukraine conflict and the Israel-Hamas battle.
Durov has taken a hands-off method to moderation and forged the app as unassailable by governments. Nevertheless, some researchers have warned that it has turn into a hub for illicit exercise and extremism in consequence.
Whereas Durov now has twin French-Emirati citizenship, his Russian roots prompted some lawmakers in Moscow to name for his launch and recommend the arrest was politically motivated, whereas the Russian embassy in France mentioned it had requested consular entry to Durov.
Lately, Durov has tried to distance himself and the app from Russia, amid claims by critics that the Kremlin would possibly nonetheless have hyperlinks to or leverage over Telegram.
“He thought his greatest issues have been in Russia and left . . . he needed to be a superb ‘citizen of the world’, residing effectively with no homeland,” former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, now a outstanding rightwing commentator, wrote on his Telegram channel on Sunday.
“He miscalculated. To our frequent enemies, he’s nonetheless Russian — unpredictable and harmful, of various blood.”
