Pavel Durov, the 39-year-old CEO and founder of the encrypted social media app Telegram, has been detained in France.

He was arrested at Le Bourget airport after disembarking from his private jet.

Previously, the tech billionaire and free speech advocate was said to avoid France and other nations where his social media app was restricted. It is unclear why he decided to land in France on this occasion.

Durov is Russian-born (Leningrad), but following a fallout with the Putin-led regime over political censorship, he has since based himself in Dubai. He is estimated to be worth around US$15 billion. He is also sometimes referred to as the ‘Mark Zuckerberg’ of Russia.

It has been reported in France that Durov faces 20 years in jail. The nature of the accusations have come under widespread concern and scrutiny.

Essentially, it is being claimed that because Telegram does not moderate content in the way France would like, and does not include specific tools for police cooperation, the founder is potentially ‘complicit’ in various offences alleged to have occurred on the platform.

A warrant was put out on Durov by the National Directorate of the French Judicial Police relating to what they referred to as a ‘preliminary investigation’.

Given the secretive and secure nature of Telegram, authorities claim it has become a hive for dubious activity. However, liberation movements also use encrypted platforms, such as Telegram, to hide from authoritarian governments. This is often frequently overlooked when it comes to political criticism of platforms like Telegram by governments interested in censorship legislation.

In the case of Telegram, it has become the prime form of communication for President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, as a way to evade Putin’s control of the press.

Pavel Durov has support among high profile Western cultural commentators.

Tucker Carlson said:

‘Pavel Durov left Russia when the government tried to control his social media company, Telegram. But in the end, it wasn’t Putin who arrested him for allowing the public to exercise free speech. It was a Western country, a Biden administration ally, an enthusiastic Nato member, that locked him away. Pavel Durov sits in a French jail tonight, a living warning to any platform owner who refuses to censor the truth at the behest of governments and intel agencies. Darkness is descending fast on the formally free world.’

He then linked to his interview with Pavel Durov, which you can watch here:

Ep. 94 The social media app Telegram has over 900 million users around the world. Its founder Pavel Durov sat down with us at his offices in Dubai for his first on-camera interview in almost a decade. pic.twitter.com/NEb3KzWOg8

— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) April 16, 2024

Russia is notoriously hostile to free speech when it comes to political power. After escaping Putin’s influence, Durov said:

‘I’m out of Russia and have no plans to go back. Unfortunately, the country is incompatible with internet business at the moment.’

Growing up in Italy, Durov experienced a taste of freedom through his education. By all accounts, Durov and his brother were genius-level students before they become tech entrepreneurs at a young age. Durov returned to Russia because of his father’s work. His departure from Russia, many years later, followed an ongoing fight with the Federal Security Service who wanted Durov to hand over private information about anti-government activists who used his social media platform to organise demonstrations.

Before Telegram, Durov was involved in the creation of the Russian social media site, VKontakte (VK) which was enormously successful, rising to claim the top position as Russia’s most popular social media platform around 2008.

Several years later, there was an incident involving the Russian Police after the government demanded Durov remove the VK pages of political opposition candidates during the election. Durov declined.

Again, in 2014, Durov refused to share information related to Ukrainian protesters, citing his support for freedom of speech and freedom of assembly. He also refused to block the page of the (now deceased) Opposition figure Alexei Navalny. It is widely believed that Navalny was poisoned and later killed by the Putin regime after being thrown in prison.

This constant information war with the powerful Putin regime eventually led to Durov departing the company. It was a difficult decision, according to Durov. He added that he would rather be free and so left behind a comfortable life in Russia to start again. His mission in life, he told Tucker Carlson, is to allow other people to become ‘free’. This suggests that the libertarian aspect of Telegram is far more important than the small base of users who are accused of breaking the law. All platforms contain dubious content, but it is platforms that actively stand against censorship which have come under scrutiny from governments. The encryption level of Telegram came to Durov, he claims, when he wanted to contact his brother during the time when the government was harassing him. His brother played a large role in the creation of the app. They tried to set Telegram up in many Western nations, but their respective bureaucracies made it too difficult. In the end, Telegram moved to Dubai.

Unsurprisingly, Russia tried in 2018 to block Telegram as it became a safe haven from anti-Putin sentiment. Now many are wondering if France is following in the footsteps of Putin.

Instead of seeking to prosecute criminals on platforms such as Telegram, the West – particularly the European Union – is going after the owners of social media companies if they fail to obey a rapidly increasing web of privacy violations and censorial incursions by government authorities. It was only last week that UK officials were mulling over punishments for Twitter CEO Elon Musk.

Durov’s arrest has raised concerns for other social media CEOs, particularly those who stand at odds with governments regarding the value of privacy and freedom of speech.

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