France launches organized crime investigation into Telegram founder

Authorities accused social media CEO Pavel Durov of facilitating illegal transactions on his social media messaging platform, Telegram. He received charges of suspected complicity in running a platform that allowed drug trafficking, fraud, child pornography, and other illicit transactions. He also faces charges of money laundering, providing cryptography services to criminals, and refusing to cooperate with authorities. French authorities detained the Russian-born CEO on a warrant at the Paris-Le Bourget Airport on Saturday and held him before officially charging him on Wednesday. Durov posted bail of about $5.5 million, with the provision he does not leave France and checks in with police twice a week, according to Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau.

Authorities alleged that Telegram’s scant online speech restrictions made the company complicit in criminal activity. Telegram has been tied to multiple cases of sex abuse, drug trafficking, and online hate crimes in France but platform leaders seemingly refuse to help investigators, Beccuau said. She added that authorities in Belgium and other European countries received the same cold shoulder from Telegram. The social media CEO’s arrest sparked international anger and discussion about online free-speech rights. The case could set a precedent for the amount of culpability owners and executives have for the activities happening on the online platforms they manage.

However, French President Emmanuel Macron also said false information was circulating online about Durov’s arrest. France is attached to freedom of expression more than anything and will remain so, but free expression online is set within a legal framework, as it is in real life, he wrote. The justice system must independently ensure that expression laws are respected, Macron said, adding that Durov’s detention has no political motivations.

What’s Telegram’s response? Telegram issued only one statement after Durov’s arrest over the weekend. Telegram abides by European Union laws and moderates user content within industry standards, the platform wrote on Sunday. Almost a billion people use Telegram globally and it’s absurd to blame a platform or its owner for abuse of that platform, the statement continued. Durov has nothing to hide and Telegram is waiting for a prompt resolution of this situation, the statement concluded.

Dig deeper: Read my report on free speech groups speaking out against a TikTok ban.