Topline
Here’s the latest on Pavel Durov, founder of Telegram and Vkontakte, who was arrested over the weekend in France and charged Wednesday because of an investigation into Telegram’s alleged enabling of widespread criminal activity.
Pavel Durov, a 39-year-old billionaire, was arrested in France on Saturday in relation to allegations his app, Telegram, has enabled crime.
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Key Facts
Officials announced Wednesday afternoon Durov was charged with a number of crimes related to illicit activity on his messaging app, Telegram, including being complicit in managing an online platform to enable illegal transactions and not cooperating with law enforcement, multiple outlets reported.
Durov was released from custody, faces a $5.5 million bail and must check in with police twice a week.
Durov is also the subject of an unrelated criminal complaint in Switzerland in which he was alleged to have been physically violent with his son multiple times—including once in Paris, which has led to a connected investigation by Parisian authorities into the incident, Forbes reported earlier Wednesday.
Russia defended Durov—who is a Russian citizen, but holds a number of other citizenships, too—Tuesday: A spokesperson for Vladimir Putin told reporters “the charges are very serious,” but added “they require a no less serious basis of evidence. Otherwise they will be a direct attempt to limit freedom of communication,” according to a Reuters translation (French President Emmanuel Macron said on Monday the arrest was “in no way a political decision.”).
Following Durov’s arrest in France, India’s government opened an investigation over the app’s “alleged misuse in criminal activities such as extortion and gambling,” reported Moneycontrol—an Indian business news site—noting that a ban is not imminent.
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Key Background: Who Is Pavel Durov?
Durov—a 39-year-old billionaire of Russian origin—has often been called a Russian Mark Zuckerberg or Elon Musk. In 2006 Durov founded the social media platform Vkontakte, which became known as Russia’s version of Facebook. Durov has said he left Russia in 2014 after he refused to turn over to the Kremlin private data from Vkontakte showing Ukrainian users using the site to organize protests, CNN reported. In 2013 Durov founded Telegram, a messaging platform similar to WhatsApp, later saying he decided to create Telegram because “it doesn’t matter how many messaging apps are out there if all of them suck,” noting that for him WhatsApp “suck(ed) most.” Durov is now a citizen of France, Russia, the Caribbean island nation of St. Kitts and Nevis and the United Arab Emirates, the Associated Press reported, and Telegram is headquartered in Dubai, which Durov told Tucker Carlson earlier this year is “the best place for a neutral platform like ours to be in if we want to make sure we can defend our users’ privacy and freedom of speech.”
What Is Telegram?
Telegram is a messaging platform that allows for one-on-one conversations, along with group chat messaging and channels, which allow people to broadcast messages to an unlimited number of subscribers. Telegram is best known for its end-to-end encryption and lack of substantial moderation—elements of the app that Durov has said are important for privacy, though they are also attractive to people using the app for illicit purposes. Durov told CNN in 2016 after the app was used to plan a terrorist attack in Paris that “you cannot make it safe against criminals and open for governments … It’s either secure or not secure.” Since then, Telegram says it has blocked channels with terrorist content.
Why Was Durov Detained?
Durov was arrested in France after landing at the Le Bourget Airport near Paris, and reportedly has not been charged but is in custody and being questioned by a law enforcement agency that handles financial crimes in France. A prosecutor in Paris said an investigation into criminal activity on Telegram was opened in July and that there are a number of potential charges related to “child sexual abuse material, drug trafficking, fraud, money laundering, abetting criminal transactions and refusing to cooperate with law enforcement,” according to the Times.
Does Durov Have 100 Children?
Durov said in a Telegram post earlier this year he was told he has “over 100 biological kids,” though he was never married and said he “prefers to live alone.” He said a friend approached him and asked Durov to donate sperm so he and his wife could have a child, so he signed up to donate sperm. He said in the post his donation helped “over a hundred couples in 12 countries” have children, and that he plans to open-source his DNA so his children can find each other.
Is Durov Still Involved In Vkontakte?
No. Durov was fired from Vkontakte in 2014 and sold his remaining stake in the company, which is now controlled by Russia. He initially resigned from the company and said his freedom had been reduced, but later said he was fired after he tried to withdraw his resignation, Reuters reported.
Has Telegram Been In Trouble Before?
Yes. Russia banned Telegram in 2018 after it wouldn’t comply with a court order requesting state access to its users’ encrypted messages, though the ban was lifted two years later after it proved unenforceable. Germany issued about $5 million in fines against Telegram in 2022 after its government said Telegram hadn’t established a lawful way for reporting illegal content or identified an entity in Germany that would receive its official communications, the AP reported. Brazil also temporarily banned Telegram last April because it wouldn’t provide data on neo-Nazi groups that were reportedly behind a number of school shootings.
Surprising Fact
About seven years ago, France and UAE hacked into Durov’s phone out of concern about the Islamic State using Telegram to recruit operatives, the Wall Street Journal reported for the first time Wednesday. A year after that, in 2018, Durov had lunch with Macron, who invited him to move Telegram to Paris, the Journal reported—adding new insight into Durov’s relationship with the country currently holding him in custody.
Big Number
More than 950 million. That’s how many users Telegram says it has. It also claims to be one of the “top 5 most downloaded apps” worldwide. As of Tuesday, it was ranked no. 11 on Apple’s App Store top free apps, and no. 9 on the Android app store.
Chief Critic
Durov’s arrest has drawn criticism from other leaders of social media platforms, including billionaire Elon Musk. Musk posted a video of Durov with the caption “#FreePavel.” And Chris Pavlovski, the CEO of Rumble—a video sharing site popular with conservatives—said France “crossed a red line by arresting” Durov.
Crucial Quote
Telegram said in an unattributed statement posted on the platform that Durov “has nothing to hide” and it’s “absurd to claim that a platform or its owner are responsible for abuse of that platform.”
Forbes Valuation
We estimate Durov to have a net worth of $15.5 billion, making him the 120th wealthiest person in the world.
Further Reading
