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Messaging app Telegram has mentioned its chief govt 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 non-public jet from Azerbaijan on Saturday night, in line with 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 didn’t reasonable adequately prison exercise on the platform.
In an announcement on Sunday, Dubai-based Telegram mentioned its moderation was “inside trade requirements and continuously enhancing”, 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 carefully, or threat 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 towards a social media chief so far and threatens to additional ignite international debate over whether or not platforms ought to prioritise on-line security or free speech. Free speech proponents corresponding 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 criminality together with terrorism, drug peddling, cash laundering, fraud and little one exploitation, in line with a number of French tv retailers. Some experiences advised there had been a warrant out for Durov’s arrest, however Telegram on Sunday mentioned the entrepreneur “has nothing to cover and travels regularly 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 info of Ukrainian customers protesting towards a pro-Russia administration.
Based in 2013, Telegram has exploded in reputation, nearing 1bn customers and turning into one of many key communication instruments in battle zones and humanitarian crises such because the Russia-Ukraine struggle and the Israel-Hamas battle.
Durov has taken a hands-off method to moderation and forged the app as unassailable by governments. Nonetheless, some researchers have warned that it has develop 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 counsel the arrest was politically motivated, whereas the Russian embassy in France mentioned it had requested consular entry to Durov.
In recent times, Durov has tried to distance himself and the app from Russia, amid claims by critics that the Kremlin may nonetheless have hyperlinks to or leverage over Telegram.
“He thought his greatest issues have been in Russia and left . . . he wished to be an excellent ‘citizen of the world’, residing properly with out a homeland,” former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, now a outstanding rightwing commentator, wrote on his Telegram channel on Sunday.
“He miscalculated. To our widespread enemies, he’s nonetheless Russian — unpredictable and harmful, of various blood.”
