Charges against Telegram CEO Pavel Durov for alleged criminal activities on the app

Pavel Durov, the The 39-year-old billionaire, co-founder and CEO of messaging app Telegram, appeared before an investigating judge in a Paris court on Wednesday evening after being detained and questioned by French law enforcement since his arrest last weekend. The judge filed six preliminary criminal charges against Durov for allegedly allowing criminal activity on the app, and the tech executive – who posted €5 million bail to avoid a prison sentence – is barred from leaving France. He also remains under judicial supervision and must report to police twice a week.

The charges listed in the indictment include complicity by providing a platform for the dissemination of child sexual abuse material (CSAM), drug trafficking, fraud and illegal transactions – as well as refusing to cooperate with law enforcement authorities requesting data and documents as part of criminal investigations. If convicted, he faces up to 10 years in prison, according to Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau.

The move to hold Durov accountable for cybercrimes on Telegram comes as the European Union considers possible enforcements of its Digital Services Act, which came into force last year and gives it broader powers to regulate major tech platforms while setting new standards for data protection and moderation of harmful content, including misinformation and hate speech. In a statement on Sunday, Telegram said the company complies with the DSA, that Durov has “nothing to hide” and that it is “absurd to suggest that a platform or its owner is responsible for the misuse of that platform.”

The authorities managed to extend Durov's detention for four days beyond the first 25 hours after his arrest, which took place on Saturday evening at Le Bourget airport, just outside Paris. (Durov had arrived from Azerbaijan on a private jet.) After that period, they were forced to either release him or press charges – the latter being at the discretion of the judge.

Russian-born Durov, who most recently lived in Dubai as a citizen of France and the United Arab Emirates, is embroiled in what prosecutors describe as a broader investigation into alleged criminal activity on Telegram, which he co-created with his brother Nikolai Durov. That undercover operation began months ago, and arrest warrants were issued for the brothers in March, according to a French administrative document obtained by PoliticoPolice are investigating the spread of child sexual abuse material (CSAM), drug trafficking and organized fraud on the app, which is favored for clandestine communications due to its end-to-end encryption. French prosecutors also said Telegram had been uncooperative in their investigations and in moderating harmful content.

Telegram has a dubious reputation. On the one hand, it has proven to be helpful to democracy movements in authoritarian countries like Russia, the Durovs' home country (Pavel left the company in 2014 under pressure to hand over data of anti-Putin commentators on his social network VK and sold his stake in the company; Nikolai and Pavel have since both held citizenship of the Caribbean nation of St. Kitts and Nevis). On the other hand, the app is also a breeding ground for extremist hate groups, illegal drug and firearms trafficking, child exploitation, conspiracy theorists and terrorist organizations like the Islamic State.

For example, Telegram has been touted as a platform for “free speech” by the likes of Elon Musk and Tucker Carlson, even as governments try to curb criminal activity there. Aside from frustrating law enforcement agencies by ignoring subpoenas, the company has also ignored requests and warnings from child protection organizations alarmed by the spread of CSAM on the app. In 2017, the Wall Street Journal As reported on Wednesday, spies from France and the United Arab Emirates hacked Durov's iPhone, apparently as part of joint anti-terrorism efforts between the two countries.

Ironically, Putin's allies have condemned Durov's arrest as an outrageous attack on his civil liberties. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said it was a “direct attempt to restrict freedom of communication and, I would even say, directly intimidate the head of a major company.” French President Emmanuel Macron denied that the criminal investigation was politically motivated.