Why was the Telegram CEO arrested? Is there such a thing as too much privacy?

The background of the arrest of Telegram CEO Pavel Durov

One Saturday in the end of August the French authorities arrested Pavel Durov, a 39-year-old tech billionaire referred to as the Russian Mark Zuckerberg, shortly after his private jet landed on an airport just outside Paris.  

The first few days following the notorious arrest, there were only reports coming from anonymous sources, but then the Paris prosecutor stepped up and declared that the CEO of the Telegram messaging app was being detained as part of the investigation that was opened in July 2024 looking into Telegram’s moderation activities and potential illegal activities. 

The arrest warrant was issued by the French department of the police that deals with violence against minors. The alleged criminal activity encompasses crimes such as child sexual abuse material,money laundering, the spread of drug trafficking as well as terrorism-related activity. 

To be precise, it was stated that the arrest warrant was based on the messaging platform’s lack of moderation and failure to comply with authorities looking for evidence on the platform.

Who is Pavel Durov?

Even though Durov is not as famous as Elon Musk or Mark Zuckerberg, the tech billionaire is behind one of the largest messaging applications in the world, with approximately a billion users.  

Even though Durov resides in Dubai, where Telegram's current headquarters is, the Russian-born billionaire gained popularity for being a defender of freedom of speech. 

He acquired a French passport and left Russia ten years ago after refusing government demands to censor anti-Putin content and commentary on his VK social network.  

What was the response?

In light of the recent events surrounding Durov’s arrest, Telegram reacted promptly via social media and released a statement. The company decided to stand up for its CEO and its main purpose.

In an X post, Telegram declared that the company abides by all applicable laws, including EU laws and the Digital Services Act. It stated that it was committed to compliance and that it did comply with all relevant regulations and industry standards, including the application’s moderation policies, adding that it is absurd to claim that a platform or its owner are responsible for abuse of that platform.

Finally, Telegram’s statement highlighted that Durov wasn’t hiding since he was used to travelling throughout Europe all the time and was willing to help several regulatory authorities. The company emphasised that this response was for the purpose of defending Durov’s integrity and their dedication to compliance with international law. 

Aside from Telegram, several well-known persons have spoken against Durov’s arrest. For example, Elon Musk and Tucker Carlson posted on X about the arrest as well as Medvedev, the former Russian president. The co-founder of Ethereum, Vitalik Buterin, has also voiced his concerns regarding the arrest by stating it poses a threat to software and communication freedom in Europe.

What is Telegram?

Telegram presents an encrypted messaging app that was launched back in 2013 by Pavel and Nikolai Durov. According to a post by Pavel Durov in July 2024, the messaging app obtained more than 950 million users across the globe.  

The app is used for one-on-one conversations, and group chats as well as broad channels where users can broadcast messages to other subscribers. It is one of the most-used messaging platforms in the world. 

In contrast to its biggest market rivals such as Meta’s WhatsApp, group chats on Telegram enable approximately 200,000 people to join while WhatsApp’s maximum amounts to 1,024 users.  

Telegram became a significant tool for communication in many states, being used for day-to-day chats, but also for sharing news about wars and enhancing freedom of speech in countries where it might be limited. However, there have been ongoing concerns regarding potential criminal activity and misinformation spreads in such broad group chats.

How is Telegram linked to crypto?

Apart from being a platform for many crypto projects and their community, Telegram is linked to crypto in other ways as well.

The native crypto token of the Open Network blockchain started as the Telegram Open Network developed by the Durov brothers. The cryptocurrency in question is linked to this messaging application. 

To learn more about Toncoin, why not read this article: 'What is the Open Network? TON Explained'.

Although they are separate legal entities, Telegram enables users to make payments on the app using Toncoin.

Is Telegram encrypted?

The question about Telegram’s encryption is quite interesting- it is a presumption that all conversations on this messaging app are encrypted and that law enforcement has no or little oversight.  

The app provides users with end-to-end encryption for their messages, but this feature is not set by default. In other words, users can switch on this option, and it also doesn’t work with group chats. 

Not being end-to-end encrypted, unless turned on, means that Telegram can access the content. On this app, the encryption is done through a combination of 256-bit symmetric AES encryption, 2048-bit RSA encryption and Diffie-Hellman secure key. 

Thereby, contrary to the big misconception, users’ messages are not protected from being read by Telegram itself unless they go to the procedure of setting up a secret chat, which also cannot be used for group chats and broadcast channels.

Controversies surrounding Telegram

Back in 2018, Russia wanted to ban Telegram for declining to supply their security services with decryption keys. The ban was lifted after two years. 

Due to its privacy-oriented approach, this messaging app became popular not just among people speaking up against regimes that limited the freedom of speech but also among terrorist groups and conspiracists movements, along with far-right organisations. 

For example, a year ago Brazil decided to temporarily suspend the application for not turning over data related to antisemitic groups linked to several hate crimes which targeted Jewish people.  

Critics also stated that Telegram tolerates scams, bots, and frauds as well as serious illegal activities such as firearm dealing, money laundering, and drug trafficking.

As a consequence, Telegram was accused of a lack of content moderation as being more flexible in terms of policy and detection of illegal content. As opposed to the official statement issued by Telegram, critics and authorities often pointed out that the app appeared almost unresponsive to law enforcement.

For instance, that led to Germany issuing a broad fine in 2022 against the operators of Telegram for failing to comply with German law since it hasn’t established a legal manner of reporting illicit content.

The defender of privacy and free speech or an accessory to criminal activity?

Durov has often stated that privacy is more important than the fear of bad things happening. As we have already mentioned, Telegram’s encryption has been associated with many assumptions; even though there is an option to turn on end-to-end encryption for certain chats, the functionality is not set by default.  

Several cryptography experts claim that a vast majority of Telegram conversations are probably visible on their servers, and thereby, Telegram can share almost all confidential information upon request. 

However, the circumstances of Pavel Durov’s arrest are kind of unclear. As stated by the Paris prosecutor’s office, the arrest is part of a judicial investigation that includes 12 charges related to complicity in organised crime, drug trafficking, fraud, and child pornography. Most charges are related to cryptology and providing cryptology services aiming to ensure confidentiality without certified declaration. 

When observing its encryption, it seems that it is not that Telegram couldn’t cooperate with law enforcement, yet it didn’t want to. When Telegram says yes to the police, its user base doesn’t take it lightly because it values its privacy-oriented approach, but when Telegram says no to the policy, it enters into a dangerous game with law enforcement.  

The debate following this arrest is coming down to talking about content moderation and more importantly, finding a balance between content moderation, privacy, and freedom of speech. The ongoing case is probably going to be the answer to the question of the extent of privacy users can have on the Internet. 

The decentralised world of crypto revolves around user privacy, the removal of the middleman, and giving back power to the community. If you are new to the crypto scene, remember that it is crucial to remain informed and educated. Our Learn Crypto Academy offers several interesting courses related to cryptocurrencies, crypto trading and gaming as well as a separate course about the above-mentioned TON token.

What does this mean for other messaging apps and crypto?

With the specifics of Pavel Durov’s arrest being unclear, it has caused a major chilling effect within the industry sending a message to over-moderate over-censor the content to avoid such situations. 

But his arrest could have wider implications for the crypto industry, which heavily relies on the Telegram messaging app.  Many crypto projects launched their communities on Telegram, allowing users to discover and engage with their products and services. 

Durov’s arrest has raised many concerns regarding the overreach of the government and the implications it could have on privacy-oriented technologies which are crucial for the crypto ecosystem. 

Many industry experts and freedom of speech advocates argued that this arrest sets a dangerous precedent. However, at the moment it is not known how the Telegram affair will be resolved under the applicable law. Stay tuned!