On Saturday, April 24, French authorities arrested billionaire founder of social media and messaging app Telegram, Pavel Durov, as he disembarked from his private jet in Paris from Azerbaijan. Authorities said the arrest was part of an investigation into criminal activity on the platform and a lack of cooperation with law enforcement. Durov has since been formally charged.
In a statement released on Sunday, Telegram said it respected EU laws and that its moderation was “within industry standards and constantly improving.” “Telegram CEO Pavel Durov has nothing to hide and frequently travels around Europe,” it said. “It is absurd to claim that a platform, or its owner, is responsible for the abuse of that platform.”
Durov, known as the “Russian Mark Zuckerberg” for having founded a platform similar to Zuckerberg’s Facebook in Russia called VKontakte, is considered a defender of free speech and has gained a reputation for being unwilling to collaborate with authorities to censor and more closely control what happens on his platform. His arrest has raised important questions about the extent to which tech executives are responsible for how users use their social networks. Chris Stokel-Walker, a technology journalist, explains the implications of Durov’s arrest for the tech sector
