IWhen Pavel Durov came under fire from Russian regulators for spreading pornography on the VKontakte social media platform he founded, the tech entrepreneur responded by mockingly changing his Twitter handle from “VK CEO” to “Porn King.”
More than a decade later, Durov’s anti-authoritarian stance and hands-off approach to moderation have landed him in deeper trouble.
On Wednesday, a Paris court charged the 39-year-old with complicity in the dissemination of child sexual abuse images, as well as a litany of other alleged violations on the messaging app Telegram.
Since its launch in 2013, Durov has presented Telegram as a politically neutral haven, free from government control and a refuge for free speech. For years, he seemed unfazed by increasing global regulation targeting tech companies and mounting criticism that his platform was being exploited for criminal and terrorist activities.
“It seems that he overestimated himself. Durov believed he had unlimited freedom and was too important to be arrested. France thought otherwise,” said Russian journalist Nikolai Kononov, one of the few reporters who has spoken to the tech billionaire on multiple occasions and who wrote a biography about him.
Durov has so far avoided jail, posting bail of €5m (£4.2m), but has been required to surrender his three passports (French, St Kitts and Nevis and Russian), clipping the wings of a man known for not staying in one place for long.
Durov was born in 1984 in the Soviet Union, grew up in a family of intellectuals and was sent to a prestigious secondary school in St. Petersburg. According to Kononov, Durov rebelled against power from a very young age.
While learning to program at school, he hacked the system so that all the computers in the classroom displayed a picture of the teacher with the caption “I must die.” He was banned from the computer lab for a month.
As a somewhat awkward teenager, Durov was said to have possessed immense self-confidence, bordering on a messianic belief in his own abilities. When his friends gathered at his apartment after graduating from high school to discuss their future careers, he told them, without a hint of joking, that he would become an “Internet prophet.”
While studying at university, his reputation as a computer expert grew and two acquaintances approached Durov and showed him a preliminary version of Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook. The group quickly decided to create an almost identical Russian version.
To realize his vision, Durov enlisted the help of his older brother, Nikolai, a math prodigy who won gold three years in a row at the International Mathematical Olympiad in the 1990s. The elder Durov would later be credited as the brains behind VKontakte and Telegram.
With relatively little competition in the Russian market, VKontakte quickly grew to become the leading social media platform in Russia and the entire post-Soviet sphere.
VKontakte offered a Facebook-like user experience but was specifically designed for a Russian-speaking audience. Its rapid growth was due in part to the fact that the platform allowed people to share and stream pirated music and movies, as well as pornography.
Durov’s first test of his commitment to freedom came during the anti-Vladimir Putin demonstration that swept across Russia in early 2012. Durov emerged as a hero of the liberal opposition by refusing to shut down groups on the site that were engaged in organizing protest marches. He further cemented his reputation for independence when he refused to hand over data on Ukrainian users to the Kremlin during the 2013-2014 Maidan marches in Ukraine.
But it gradually lost control of VKontakte to investors linked to Mail.ru, a company owned by a Russian oligarchy close to the Kremlin.
Durov decided to leave Russia and in his farewell message he wrote: “Since December 2013 I have no property, but I have something more important: a clear conscience and ideals that I am ready to defend.”
Durov, his colleagues said, came up with the idea for Telegram while looking for a way to securely communicate with his team.
Telegram’s novelty was that it allowed people to create large chat groups, which made it easier for people to organize themselves, like a more elegant version of WhatsApp.
Their “channels” allowed information to be disseminated quickly to large numbers of followers in a way that other messaging services did not; they combined the reach and immediacy of a Twitter/X feed with the focus of an email newsletter.
The app’s combination of ease of use and privacy has attracted a wide variety of users, from lifestyle bloggers to anti-authoritarian protesters, and has been instrumental in fueling demonstrations in Iran, Belarus and Russia.
It has also increasingly become a haven for extremists and conspiracy theorists, as well as a preferred tool for child abusers, drug gangs and terrorist groups.
In the business world, the success of Telegram, with nearly a billion users, proved that Durov was much more than a mere copycat.
“While VKontakte raised some questions about whether Durov’s success was due to his own merits or simply a replication of Facebook, Telegram’s launch was clearly a technological breakthrough on a global scale,” said Pavel Cherkashin, a venture capitalist who worked with Durov.
As Telegram grew into a tech giant, Durov gained a reputation as an eccentric and imperious figure. Obsessed with the film The Matrix, he saw himself and dressed like Keanu Reeves’ character Neo, a programmer on a mission.
Although often referred to as “Russia’s Zuckerberg,” his biographer Kononov notes that Durov was inspired by Apple boss Steve Jobs, who was at the height of his influence at the time.
“Durov, like Jobs, considered himself an authoritarian visionary who pushed his staff to extremes”
Durov occasionally posted self-help posts titled “Rules of Life” on his Instagram account, advising his millions of followers to live a solitary existence, avoid alcohol and coffee, and refrain from overeating.
He also prided himself on owning minimal property, which he said allowed him to remain free and maintain a mobile lifestyle, supported by a team of just 30 full-time engineers worldwide.
Durov has kept details of his private life largely under wraps, though last month he revealed on social media that as a sperm donor he now has more than 100 biological children.
At the time of his arrest, after arriving in Paris by private jet, Durov was accompanied by Juli Vavilova, 24, a cryptocurrency coach and streamer based in Dubai.
But while he has largely managed to avoid the public scrutiny faced by top executives at other tech companies, such as Elon Musk and Zuckerberg, foreign governments have long sought to keep tabs on Durov and curry his favor.
The Guardian previously reported that Durov’s number was targeted for surveillance using the Pegasus spy network, while the Wall Street Journal said this week that French and Emirati spies hacked it in 2017.
At the same time, he appears to have been entertained on multiple occasions by French President Emmanuel Macron, who had suggested to Durov that he move his company to France.
“Durov felt he was treated with respect in France, I don’t think he saw the arrest coming,” said a source close to the billionaire who asked not to be named.
Durov obtained French nationality in 2021. Macron said Thursday that the decision “was taken as part of a fully assumed strategy, to allow women and men (…) who strive to learn the French language and who develop wealth and innovation, who shine in the world, when they ask for it, to be granted French nationality.”
The world He reported that the men had met on several occasions. Before Durov obtained a French passport, he applied for French nationality after a lunch with Macron in 2018, according to the newspaper, which confirmed the fact at the Elysee Palace. During the lunch, the possibility of Telegram being established in France was mentioned.
Questions have been raised about the timing and circumstances of Durov’s arrest, in particular whether he was aware that Paris had issued an arrest warrant for him.
Some have speculated that Durov traveled to Paris in order to resolve his legal disputes, while his ardent supporters question whether he would ever surrender voluntarily.
Most, however, believe Durov will likely frame it as another chapter in his fight for freedom of speech, positioning himself as a champion of the cause.
“Since the beginning of his career, Durov has emerged stronger after each attack against him, further cementing his image as an anti-establishment hero,” Kononov said.
Additional reporting by Kim Willsher in Paris