Telegram CEO arrested in France for content moderation

Telegram says it complies with EU laws and its moderation meets industry standards, but the app has been criticized for its laissez-faire approach.

Pavel Durov, the CEO and co-founder of Telegram, was arrested by authorities in France, sparking a backlash from some well-known online accounts.

Durov was arrested by police at an airport north of Paris over the messaging app's moderation policies. French authorities accuse Durov of failing to take action to stop criminal activity on the messaging app, such as drug trafficking and child sexual abuse images, the BBC reports.

Telegram responded to the arrest by saying that the CEO had “nothing to hide” and that the app was operating in accordance with regulations.

“Telegram complies with EU laws, including the Digital Services Act – its moderation is in line with industry standards and is constantly improving,” Telegram said. “It is absurd to claim that a platform or its owner is responsible for the misuse of that platform.”

“Nearly a billion users worldwide use Telegram as a means of communication and as a source of important information. We look forward to a speedy resolution of this situation.”

Telegram has been criticized in the past for its “hands off” approach to content moderation and accused of creating a space for the spread of illegal and extremist content. A report by the Financial Times found that Telegram's user base surged in the wake of the recent unrest in the UK. This report claimed that Telegram was one of the main platforms for organizing these unrests, alongside TikTok and X.

But Durov's arrest sparked an outcry online. Several Russian officials reportedly condemned the decision on their Telegram accounts. US whistleblower Edward Snowden, who lives in exile in Russia, called the arrest an “attack on the basic human rights of freedom of expression and association.”

“I am surprised and deeply saddened that Macron has stooped to taking hostages to gain access to private communications,” Snowden said on X. “This is humiliating not only France, but the entire world.”

However, Telegram is not the only social media app accused of spreading harmful content online. There are numerous examples of these sites being used to spread misinformation, influence elections, and promote violence.

Meanwhile, end-to-end encryption protections scored a victory earlier this year when the European Court of Human Rights ruled that it was a human rights violation for law enforcement agencies to require companies to build “backdoors” into the technology.

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Telegram CEO and co-founder Pavel Durov at TechCrunch Disrupt SF 2015. Image: Steve Jennings/Getty Images for TechCrunch via Flickr (CC BY 2.0)