Pavel Durov, Arrested

French authorities have extended the detention of Telegram founder Pavel Durov, who landed in the country over the weekend. At the center of the accusations against him: the lack of oversight that has turned Telegram, with nearly a billion users, into a tool that generates terrorism, crime, drug trafficking and more.

And what does this have to do with the war in Ukraine? 

Pavel Durov, the Russian billionaire who founded the successful messaging app Telegram, thought he could meet Russian President Vladimir Putin during his visit to Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, over the weekend. Durov, who had previously been in Kazakhstan, took his private plane there accompanied by his bodyguard and a young woman of Russian origin who claims to be a crypto advisor, and waited in a hotel room for the meeting. When he realized that Putin wouldn't have time to meet him, he left the city and flew to France - a country that granted him citizenship, but at the same time issued an arrest warrant against him for illegally operating a social network that allows drug, weapon, and human trafficking.

Indeed, on Saturday, Durov was arrested upon landing at Le Bourget airport near Paris, in what became one of the most controversial arrests on social networks. Human rights activists joined the American right and Russian authorities in the past day in calling for Durov's release from detention. Elon Musk, who is said to have drawn inspiration from him for managing the X network, formerly Twitter, tweeted for his release, as did pro-Russian American journalist Tucker Carlson and Leonid Volkov, former advisor to Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

"Did Durov ask to meet Putin in Azerbaijan, or did Putin ask to meet him, and they both happened to be in the same city?" asks Dr. Zeev Hanin, head of the Post-Soviet Conflicts Research Program at the Department of Political Science at Bar-Ilan University. "We'll probably never know. The reason why Durov flew to France is also shrouded in mystery: Did the authorities promise him anything there and then plans changed, leading to his arrest? Much is hidden than revealed." Despite the arrest, the assessment is that the app is not in danger of shutting down.

Paradise for regime opponents

A European country doesn't usually arrest founders of social networks or tech billionaires just like that. But everything related to Durov's arrest raises many questions. While he is considered a French citizen, he also holds Russian citizenship and is currently considered a citizen of the UAE where he resides. He left Russia in 2014 with the Russian invasion of Crimea, and moved Telegram's headquarters to Dubai.

When he founded Telegram, Durov promised his users a social network without government oversight - and he seemingly fulfilled the promise: The app, which currently holds 950 million users, is especially popular in Russia, Ukraine, and India and is considered free from monitoring by authorities. Moreover, the lack of oversight is what brought about Durov's arrest: Telegram has become a fertile ground for weapons and drug trafficking, and terrorism propagation, and Durov's refusal to comply with government demands for internal regulation or tighter oversight has brought upon him the wrath of French authorities, known to be hawkish regarding regulation of online services.

Durov founded Telegram in Russia in 2013 with the intention of providing social network users with a place without government oversight - one that no longer exists in the Russian VK app, which he was among its founders. VK is now considered to be under full control of Putin's government. Until the war, Instagram and Meta's Messenger also operated in Russia, agreeing to share their encryption code with the Kremlin. Unlike them, Durov kept the encryption code for Telegram chats in his possession, calling Telegram a place where discussion about oppressive regimes can arise, or even organize protests against them.

A move that made it particularly popular in its early days was the decision to allow it to host extremely large chat groups of up to 200,000 people, while WhatsApp, for example, limited them to combat misinformation. In addition to minimal oversight, Telegram allowed early on the ability to share extremely large files, the ability to send links without oversight, and to build automated bots capable of communicating with users without any barriers.

Thus, Telegram became a paradise for Putin's regime critics on one hand, but on the other hand, an empire for distributing violent, crude, and unfiltered content. Telegram is used for illegal activities of drug distribution - the Israeli Telegrass network flourished on the app until its owner was arrested - for distributing pornographic films, violence, and terrorism. A study published last year at the Central European University in Vienna proved how Telegram has become a fertile ground for spreading ISIS propaganda and connecting users who express interest in these messages. In Russia, they considered blocking it, Apple temporarily removed it from the App Store, and in Brazil and Spain, tremendous efforts were made to block it, yet it continues to grow.

Meanwhile, it has become a thriving revenue channel for content creators: it generates revenue from an in-app payment interface, advertising, and premium subscriptions. While its revenues are unknown, earlier this year Durov claimed to the Financial Times that the company is approaching profitability and is even considering going public.

The French Motivation

Some of the most prominent speakers in favor of his release came from the Russian leadership, who should have theoretically supported it, since Durov fled Russia and Telegram is also used by the Russian opposition. However, Dr. Hanin claims, Telegram is used by both fighters in Ukraine's service and many Russian soldiers who skip military communication networks, some of which are inactive. "The main speculations revolve around the fact that the French may want to get their hands on information related to the war in Ukraine, especially since Paris has become a more active player in the conflict in recent months and has recently seen its sphere of influence beyond the Middle East to the South Caucasus and Central Asia, where Telegram also has many subscribers.

France would be happy to receive some of this information or alternatively prevent it from reaching Russia. Another possibility is that France wants to increase crime enforcement by obtaining the information existing on the network."

Originally published on Globes.