Pavel Durov, the founder and chief executive of Telegram, has been placed under formal investigation by a French judge over allegations relating to criminal activity on the social media and messaging platform.
He is facing preliminary charges of being complicit in administering a platform used to conduct serious criminal offences.
The case has been brought by French prosecutors following what they describe as an “almost total lack of response” from Telegram to judicial requests for assistance in investigating multiple offences conducted on the platform.
Durov’s arrest comes as the European Commission has confirmed to Computer Weekly that it is assessing whether Telegram has accurately reported the number of users it has in Europe, and has warned it may take “direct supervision” of the platform.
The Russian-born billionaire, who was arrested on Saturday after arriving in Paris on a private jet, has been released on bail of €5m and is barred from leaving French territory. He must report to a police station twice a week.
Telegram, based in Dubai, maintains that it is “absurd to claim” that Durov – who founded the Telegram messaging app in 2013 with his brother, Nikolai Durov – or Telegram itself are responsible for abuse of the platform.
In a statement issued on 28 August, public prosecutor Laure Beccuau confirmed that Pavel Durov is facing 12 alleged charges. They include “complicity in the administration of an online platform” to enable illicit transactions as part of an organised crime group, an offence that carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a fine of €500,000.
He is also charged with complicity in other alleged offences including drug trafficking, organised fraud, the organised distribution of child abuse material and criminal association with a view to committing offences.
The French indictment also accuses Durov of breaching France’s laws restricting the provision of cryptographic services without “prior declaration”.
Under French law, operators of encrypted communications services may face fines, prison sentences or confiscation of their products if they provide cryptographic services without seeking formal approval.
Telegram has previously stated that the platform abides by European Union (EU) laws, including the Digital Services Act.
“Telegram’s CEO, Pavel Durov, has nothing to hide and travels frequently in Europe,” it said. “It is absurd to claim that a platform or its owner are responsible for abuse of that platform. Almost a billion users globally use Telegram as a means of communication and as a source of vital information. We’re awaiting a prompt resolution of this situation.”
Lack of response
According to the French public prosecutor, Telegram had featured in multiple cases relating to offences including trafficking, online hate and child sex abuse.
The “almost total lack of response from Telegram” to judicial requests was brought to the attention of the Paris public prosecutors office and France’s child protection unit, the National Office for Minors (OFIM), according to the prosecutor’s statement.
Beccuau said that following enquiries, other French investigation services, public prosecutors and partners in European justice organisation Eurojust, in particular Belgium, shared the same observations about Telegram’s lack of response to judicial requests.
The French public prosecutor’s office opened a preliminary investigation into Telegram in February 2024 with OFIM.
Prosecutors issued an indictment on 8 July 2024, prompting further investigations by the Gendarmerie’s cyber crime unit, C3N, and France’s National Anti Fraud Office (ONAF).
EU may impose regulation on Telegram
Separately, the European Commission is conducting enquiries to check whether Telegram has accurately reported how many users it has in Europe.
Platforms with over 45 million users in the EU are classed as very large-scale online platforms (VLSOP) under the Digital Services Act. They have duties to mitigate the risks of illegal content, set up internal compliance units, and are subject to external audits.
A European Commission spokesman told Computer Weekly that it is carrying out “formal proceedings” under the Digital Services Act to investigate the accuracy of claims by Telegram that it falls beneath the threshold for regulation under the DSA.
Telegram reported in February that it had an estimated 41 million monthly active users in the EU in the previous six months, bringing it below the EU threshold.
The commission confirmed that Telegram should have provided an updated figure this month but failed to do so.
Telegram’s report simply stated that its user base was “significantly below the threshold” for regulation under the DSA. “The commission services are looking into the figures,” one source told Computer Weekly. “And what I can say for sure is that we have the technological capacity and scientific knowledge to do so.”
European regulators have powers to designate Telegram as VSLOP, and could bring it under the “direct supervision” of the European Commission if it is found to have 45 million European users.
Anti-censorship
Durov, who was born in the former Soviet Union, is known as the Mark Zuckerberg of Russia. He founded Russian social network VK – Russia’s equivalent of Facebook – but left the country in 2014, after being placed under pressure by the Russian government to disclose data on users of the platform.
Telegram positions itself as an anti-censorship platform, claiming to have played a prominent role in pro-democracy movements in Iran, Russia, Belarus, Myanmar and Hong Kong.
It allows messages to be shared in groups of up to 200,000 people and for material to be broadcast over channels to large audiences.
The service provides encrypted messaging capability using “secret chats”, but most communications on the platform are unencrypted.
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