French Authorities Charge Telegram Founder Pavel Durov
The move opens a deeper probe into whether the tech entrepreneur failed to counter the spread of illegal content on the app
PARIS—French judicial authorities brought preliminary charges against Telegram founder Pavel Durov for a host of crimes, including complicity in distributing child pornography, illegal drugs and hacking software on the messaging app—a stunning blow for an entrepreneur who became a hero for internet libertarians over the past decade.
The authorities also charged Durov with refusing to cooperate with investigations into illegal activity on Telegram. Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau cited “an almost complete absence of response from Telegram to judicial demands.”
The charges are the most significant test yet facing Telegram and Durov, and they represent a major escalation by the French government in holding tech executives accountable for the content that appears on their platforms. The arrest of Durov, who for years has resisted government attempts to regulate Telegram, has thrust the entrepreneur to the center of debate over how far authorities should go, with executives such as Elon Musk coming to his defense.
Wednesday’s decision means French judges thought there was enough evidence against Durov to deepen their investigation into whether he violated French laws that require online platforms to limit harmful content and cooperate with authorities. If convicted of complicity in illegal online transactions, Durov faces up to 10 years in prison and a fine of €500,000, about $550,000.
The judges placed Durov under court monitoring, forbade him from leaving France and required him to post bail of €5 million. He will have to appear at a police station twice a week. After an investigation that is likely to take months or even years, judges ultimately could decide to drop the charges.
Durov, 39 years old, was arrested Saturday night when his private jet landed at Le Bourget airport north of Paris. One of his lawyers, David-Olivier Kaminski, said it was “totally absurd to think that the head of a social network could be involved in criminal acts that do not concern him, either directly or indirectly.”
Beccuau said Telegram had popped up repeatedly in investigations into child pornography, drug trafficking and inciting racial hatred online since the app’s launch in 2013. Other prosecutors around France and in other European countries noted the same trend when the Paris prosecutor consulted them, she said. That prompted French investigators to examine whether Telegram executives were criminally liable for the illegal activity taking place on the platform.
The requirements imposed by the court are likely to put an end to the jet-setting lifestyle of Durov, who has spent the past decade bouncing between Russia, Europe and the Middle East, accumulating nationalities along the way. Born in Soviet Russia, he became a citizen of France and the United Arab Emirates in 2021. He also has citizenship for St. Kitts and Nevis, an island in the Caribbean that offers it for those who can pay.
His arrest and charges have unnerved people across the social-media industry, said Sarah Oh Lam, senior fellow at the Technology Policy Institute, a Washington think tank that is largely funded by the tech industry.
“Folks are very concerned,” said Oh Lam. “What does it mean that the French government can arrest someone upon landing in France? At least from our vantage point they need to reveal more of the facts.”
What is clear is that Telegram isn’t like U.S. Big Tech companies, which employ armies of lawyers and government relations executives to respond to demands from law enforcement. For years, the company ignored subpoenas and court orders sent by authorities, which piled up in a rarely checked company email address, according to a person close to Durov.
An office rented by Telegram in an office building complex in Dubai was closed on Wednesday. A receptionist in Business Central Towers said Telegram was registered as a tenant for several years, but she had never seen anyone from the company work out of the more than 3,000-square-foot office in her time there. She also said she couldn’t find any contact details for the company or one of its representatives on the building security system, which she said was usually updated with such information for most other tenants there.
Durov has a murky history with governments around the world, which have sought to both target him and win him over. In 2018, French President Emmanuel Macron invited Durov to move Telegram to Paris during a lunch meeting, The Wall Street Journal has reported.
A year earlier, French spies had joined their counterparts from the U.AE. to hack into Durov’s phone. French security officials were concerned about Islamic State’s use of Telegram to recruit operatives and plan attacks.
Russia in 2018 attempted to block Telegram, saying the platform didn’t cooperate in terrorism investigations. But Telegram continued to thrive there even as authorities prevented thousands of IP addresses a day from accessing the app, the company said. Moscow in 2020 abandoned the blockade, saying Telegram had promised to fight terrorist content on its platform. A Telegram spokesman denied there was any deal with Russia and said the company had a “zero compromise” policy for bans in authoritarian countries.
Durov imposed few, if any, restrictions on content shared on Telegram, despite mounting concern, particularly in Europe, that big online platforms were enabling illegal activity, spreading misinformation and fueling racism and antisemitism. Telegram says it now complies with the European Union’s Digital Services Act, which requires online companies to cooperate with authorities in countering the spread of illegal content on their platforms.
Durov founded Telegram in 2013 as Russian authorities began demanding information about users of an earlier company he co-founded, VKontakte, a social-media platform that earned him a reputation as the Mark Zuckerberg of Russia. He left Russia the next year, saying the Kremlin was pressuring him to turn over user data of Ukrainians protesting the then pro-Russian government in Kyiv.
Durov rebuffed agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation who would typically be waiting for him when he landed in the U.S., he said in an interview earlier this year with Tucker Carlson.
“My understanding is they wanted to establish a relationship to, in a way, control Telegram better,” Durov said.