As Maillochon and different French journalists went on to report, prosecutors had been secretly investigating Durov for months over his and Telegram’s alleged failure to dam criminality—which authorities declare included fraud, drug trafficking, youngster sexual abuse materials (CSAM), organized crime, and terrorism—on the platform. The French Gendarmerie alone had counted 2,460 instances between 2013 and 2024 during which authorized requests made to Telegram had gone unanswered, in accordance with the outlet Libération. Maylis de Roeck, a spokesperson for the prosecutor’s workplace, advised WIRED that when her group realized simply what number of investigations throughout totally different departments have been being stymied by Telegram’s lack of response, they determined to subject an arrest warrant. As they noticed it, Durov’s silence amounted to complicity.
Within the fast aftermath of the arrest, nobody from Telegram commented publicly. Certainly one of Durov’s shut associates, George Lobushkin—the previous head of PR at VKontakte—advised WIRED: “I’m in shock, and everybody near Pavel feels the identical. No person was ready for this example.” Lobushkin added that he apprehensive “quite a bit” about Telegram’s future if Durov remained in custody.
Within the US, one of many first to react to the arrest was Tucker Carlson, the right-wing TV host. In a submit on X, Carlson known as Durov “a dwelling warning to any platform proprietor who refuses to censor the reality on the behest of governments and intel businesses.” Elon Musk reposted a clip from Carlson’s interview and captioned it “#FreePavel.” Even Edward Snowden, a stern critic of Telegram’s safety claims, expressed alarm. “I’m shocked and deeply saddened that Macron has descended to the extent of taking hostages as a method for having access to non-public communications,” he wrote on X. Macron, for his half, issued an announcement that France was “deeply dedicated to freedom of expression,” including of the arrest: “It’s under no circumstances a political choice. It’s as much as the judges to rule on the matter.”
On the Sunday night after Durov’s arrest, his custody was prolonged to the 96-hour restrict. In response to Maillochon’s sources, he slept in a cramped cell, though investigators made the uncommon concession of letting Durov have a contemporary set of garments delivered. Beneath additional questioning, Durov reportedly claimed he hadn’t been unresponsive to takedown requests from regulation enforcement; police had merely despatched their requests to the unsuitable place. (Durov made an analogous declare in 2022 when Brazil’s supreme court docket quickly banned Telegram, primarily saying the court docket’s authorized requests had been misplaced within the mail.) Durov additionally mentioned he had been in contact with French intelligence companies about terrorism instances.
On August 28, practically 4 days after his arrest, Durov was formally indicted on six expenses. Essentially the most severe—complicity within the administration of a web-based platform to allow organized crime and illicit transactions—carried a most penalty of 10 years’ imprisonment, in addition to a €500,000 ($521,000) high quality. With bail set at €5 million ($5.2 million) and swiftly paid, Durov was launched that night time however prohibited from leaving the nation. He was additionally ordered to report back to a police station twice every week.
The case in opposition to Durov, the CEO of an enormous mainstream platform, was unprecedented. And it got here at a second when his professed libertarian beliefs and laissez-faire angle to content material moderation appeared to be ascendant. The small measurement of Durov’s group had really impressed Musk to fireside 80 p.c of Twitter’s workers when he took it over, in accordance with Character Restrict, a e book by Kate Conger and Ryan Mac. Musk gutted the corporate’s moderation and trust-and-safety groups. If Durov may run a platform with about 60 full-time workers, most of them in Dubai, why not strive one thing related? Extra lately, Mark Zuckerberg fired Meta’s fact-checkers within the US and loosened the enforcement of guidelines in opposition to inflammatory content material on the corporate’s platforms. The “latest elections,” Zuckerberg mentioned, have been a “cultural tipping level towards as soon as once more prioritizing speech.”