The head of social media platform Telegram has been arrested in France for allowing the sharing of illegal content.
The Russian-founded messaging platform has flown under the radar in the West but has hundreds of millions of users around the world and is playing a key role in the war in Ukraine.
Libertarian Tendencies
Pavel Durov, who was arrested after landing in Paris on a private jet on Saturday, launched the platform in 2013 with his brother Nikolai.
The company claims that its user base will grow from 550 million to 950 million in 2022.
Durov told right-wing American journalist Tucker Carlson in April that users “love the privacy and freedom” of the platform.
Telegram has made significant progress by refusing to hand over or sell user data, setting it apart from the business model of US rivals such as Meta and Google.
In Russia and Ukraine, some news channels are more popular than traditional media.
But the platform has long been criticized for failing to moderate extremist content.
Durov, who has a net worth of $15.5 billion according to Forbes, told the Financial Times in March that he planned to improve moderation processes.
But “unless they cross the line, I don't think we should police how they express themselves,” he said.
But the company only employs a few dozen people, which experts say may not be enough to provide a platform with adequate security.
Russian origin
The 39-year-old rose to fame in 2006, shortly after graduating from St. Petersburg State University, when he launched the social network VKontakte (VK).
With millions of people joining, it quickly became known as “Russia's Facebook” and its popularity attracted the attention of the Kremlin.
He said he had to fend off demands from Russian security services to hand over details of opposition groups that were using VK to organise.
He then came under intense pressure to hand over the personal data of pro-European Ukrainian activists.
These experiences led him to found Telegram, and eventually sold his shares in VK and left Russia in 2014.
By 2017 he had set up shop in Dubai, distancing himself from the tougher regulatory regimes of the European Union and the United States.
Durov is a citizen of the Caribbean island nation of Saint Kitts and Nevis and also received French citizenship in 2021.
Legal troubles
French prosecutors have accused Telegram of failing to moderate content and cooperating with authorities.
They highlighted content related to fraud, drug trafficking, organized crime, glorifying terrorism and cyberbullying.
The company says it can't be held responsible for the actions of its users, a defense that big tech platforms have used for years.
Several countries have tried to block Telegram in the past.
In 2018, Iran accused the country of harboring violent rebel groups.
That same year, Russia announced it had failed to hand over the encryption keys.
Last year, Brazil temporarily blocked it for failing to provide data on neo-Nazi groups, and Spain took action against it for intellectual property rights violations.
There is no profit yet
Telegram was fully funded by Durov until 2018, when it raised $1.7 billion to launch its own cryptocurrency.
The cryptocurrency project collapsed after US regulators refused to approve it, and the company repaid most of its investment.
The messaging service began serving ads in 2021 but stressed that it would not use users' personal data for targeting.
In 2022 a premium subscription system was introduced.
Durov told the Financial Times that his company has hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue and hopes to turn a profit soon.
He also did not rule out the possibility of an IPO.
But he repeatedly says his mission is not to get rich.
“My whole life has been about being free,” he told Carlson, saying Telegram was about allowing others to express their freedom.
© 2024 AFP
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