Due to his technological profile, his fortune and his age, many have dubbed Pavel Valeryevich Durov the “Russian Mark Zuckerberg”. Also due to his pioneering role in the world of technology. Durov created a social network, actually two: first was VKontakte – the largest social network in Russia, which he founded when he was 22 years old – and the other is one of the most used communication platforms worldwide, Telegram.
The success of both projects has made him one of the most influential technology icons in the world and a renowned entrepreneur at just 39 years old. According to Forbes, his personal fortune amounts to $15.5 billion dollars.
But at the weekend, French authorities arrested him shortly after his private plane landed at Le Bourget airport in Paris. On Tuesday, he was charged by French justice on charges ranging from money laundering to complicity in the dissemination of paedophile images, and was released but under judicial supervision.
French investigators had issued an arrest warrant for Durov as part of an investigation into allegations of fraud, drug trafficking, organised crime, money laundering, promoting terrorism and sexual abuse of children.
French police authorities say Durov is complicit in these crimes because he has refused to moderate the platform’s content. The billionaire could face criminal charges in France.
In a statement issued on Sunday evening, Telegram said it “complies with EU laws, including the Digital Services Act” and that its content moderation “is within industry standards and is constantly improving.”
“Telegram CEO Pavel Durov has nothing to hide and frequently travels around Europe. It is absurd to claim that a platform or its owner is responsible for abuses on that platform. We are looking forward to a prompt resolution of this situation,” the statement added.
Janis Sarts, director of NATO’s Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence, told the LETA news agency that while it is difficult to know at this point why French authorities decided to detain Durov, it is undeniable that Telegram has been used for all sorts of illegal activities.
Durov’s lawyer, Dmitry Agranovsky, said the arrest was “absolutely ridiculous” and an attack on freedom of expression.
Minimalist style and father of 100 children
Durov was born in 1984 in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) and resides in Dubai, where Telegram’s headquarters are also located. In addition to Russian and UAE citizenship, he also holds a French passport.
As a child he attended the St. Petersburg Academic Gymnasium, a prestigious school known for its emphasis on mathematics and science, and later studied Applied Mathematics and Computer Science at St. Petersburg State University.
There his first great idea would germinate: a student forum called spbgu.ru, which allowed them to discuss academic matters and share information.
Not one to give interviews, in one earlier this year, Durov said that Telegram should remain a “neutral platform” and not “an actor in geopolitics.”
“Durov has earned a reputation for asceticism and discipline that goes beyond his professional achievements,” says former MIT professor Douglas C Youvan in a book about the Telegram founder called The Russian Jesus: A Beacon of Digital Freedom in an Age of Surveillance (“The Russian Jesus: A Beacon of Digital Freedom in an Age of Surveillance”).
“He is known for his minimalist lifestyle, which abstains from alcohol, caffeine and processed foods, and adheres to a rigorous personal regimen focused on mental clarity and physical health,” she added.
According to Forbes, Durov, who has five children shared with two ex-girlfriends, recently claimed to have donated sperm that allowed him to father 100 children.
Encrypted messages
Telegram has 900 million monthly active users and is ranked as one of the top social media platforms after Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp, Instagram, TikTok and Wechat.
The app pioneered the use of encrypted messaging protocols, a feature that its rivals would later copy.
Durov came up with the idea for an encrypted messaging app when he was facing pressure from Russian authorities to hand over personal data of Ukrainian users of the social network Vkontakte – Russia’s version of Facebook – and calls to shut down groups critical of Moscow in that country.
Encryption means that messages can only be read on the device that sends them and the device that receives them.
His refusal to hand over the data requested by the Russian authorities led him to leave his country in 2014 and leave VK’s control behind.
From then on, his efforts would focus on developing Telegram, which he founded with his brother Nikolai in 2013.
In addition to communicating one-on-one, users can join groups of up to 200,000 people and create “channels” that others can follow and leave comments on.
In the UK, for example, the app has come under scrutiny for hosting far-right channels that were instrumental in organising violent riots in English cities earlier this month.
Telegram has removed some groups, but overall its system for moderating extremist and illegal content is significantly weaker than that of other social media companies and messaging apps, cybersecurity experts say.
Controversy
The arrest sparked a variety of criticisms: while many confirmed Durov as a staunch defender of freedom of expression and highlighted his commitment to privacy, others highlighted his close ties to the Kremlin.
Expert Dmytro Zolotukhin told BBC Monitoring that unlike many other celebrities who renounced their Russian citizenship and were subsequently persecuted by the Kremlin, Durov enjoys the protection of the Russian government.
“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Duma [parlamento] and the deputies are defending Durov, as well as the Russian Direct Investment Fund, which is the official co-owner of Telegram,” he said.
Curiously, several Russian officials condemned the businessman’s arrest, saying it showed that the West has double standards when it comes to freedom of expression and democracy.
Another defender was former US intelligence agent Edward Snowden, who leaked classified documents revealing the existence of global surveillance programmes and who has been living in exile in Russia since 2013.
On his X account, Snowden said that Durov’s arrest “is an attack on the basic human rights of expression and association.”
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