Russian-born tech entrepreneur and Telegram CEO Pavel Durov has founded wildly popular social networks as well as a cryptocurrency, amassed a multi-billion-dollar fortune and locked horns with authorities not just in Russia but around the world. Durov recently hit the headlines for his arrest in France.
Still a few months shy of his 40th birthday, the man once dubbed the “Russian Zuckerberg” after Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg was recently arrested in France after being sensationally detained at a Paris airport the past weekend.
France on August 28 charged Durov with a litany of violations related to the messaging app and banned him from leaving the country while allowing the billionaire to walk free after four days under arrest.
Russian-born Durov, 39, was charged on several counts of failing to curb extremist and illegal content on the popular messaging app following a hearing with investigating magistrates in Paris.
He was arrested at Le Bourget airport outside Paris late Saturday and questioned in subsequent days under arrest by investigators. He was granted conditional release against a bail of five million euros and on the condition he must report to a police station twice a week as well as remaining in France, Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau said in a statement.
The charges concern alleged crimes involving an organised group including “complicity in the administration of an online platform to enable an illicit transaction”.
Durov has also been charged with refusing to share documents demanded by authorities as well as “dissemination in an organised group of images of minors in child pornography” as well as drug trafficking, fraud and money laundering.
His lawyer David-Olivier Kaminski said it was “absurd” to suggest Durov could be implicated in any crime committed on the app, adding: “Telegram complies in all respects with European rules concerning digital technology.”
Separately, Durov is also being investigated on suspicion of “serious acts of violence” towards one of his children while he and an ex-partner, the boy’s mother, were in Paris, a source said. She also filed another complaint against Durov in Switzerland last year.
While still in his 20s, the Saint Petersburg native shot to fame in Russia after founding the VKontakte (VK) social network which catered to the needs of Russian-language users and outgunned Facebook throughout the former USSR.
After disputes with the Russian authorities and ownership battles, he sold out of VKontakte and founded a new messaging service called Telegram which rapidly gained traction but has also proved controversial with critics condemning an alleged lack of control on extreme content.
As these dramas raged, Durov remained a mercurial and at times mysterious figure, rarely giving interviews and restricting himself to sometimes enigmatic declarations made on Telegram.
A self-avowed libertarian, Durov has championed confidentiality on the Internet and encryption in messaging. He has defiantly refused to allow the moderation of messages on Telegram, which allows users to post video, pictures and comments on “channels” that can be followed by anyone.
In 2006, having just graduated from the University of Saint Petersburg, Durov launched VKontakte (VK), attracting users even while its founder remained a shadowy figure.
In a stunt typical of his unpredictable behaviour, Durov in 2012 showered high-denomination notes on pedestrians from VK’s headquarters on top of a historic bookstore on Saint Petersburg’s Nevsky Prospekt.
But after running into trouble with the Kremlin for refusing to hand over the personal data of users to the Russian security services (FSB), he sold out of the company and left Russia in 2014.
Durov resigned from VK with a typical flourish, posting a picture of dolphins and the slogan “So Long and Thanks for All the Fish”, a title in the famous Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy science fiction series.
He developed the Telegram messaging service with his brother Nikolai while travelling from country to country and launched the service in 2013.
He settled in Dubai and obtained citizenship of the Caribbean island archipelago of Saint Kitts and Nevis, then, in August 2021, won French nationality following a low-profile procedure about which Paris remains highly discreet.
Meanwhile, Telegram enjoyed stratospheric success, presenting itself as a champion of individual freedoms, refusing “censorship” and protecting the confidentiality of its users.
This rankled with authorities, especially in his home country and in 2018, a Moscow court ordered the blocking of the application. But the imposition of the measure was shambolic and three days later, protesters ironically bombarded the FSB headquarters with paper planes, the symbol of Telegram.
Since then, Russia has abandoned its efforts to block Telegram and the messaging service is used by both the Russian government and the opposition, with some channels boasting several hundred thousand subscribers.
Telegram also plays a key role in Russia’s war against Ukraine, documented by bloggers from both sides who post their analyses and videos of the fighting.
Pro-Moscow channels run by so-called “Z-bloggers” who back the war have proved hugely influential and are sometimes critical of Russian military strategy.
Durov eschews traditional media interviews but in April sat down with ultra-conservative US journalist Tucker Carlson for an extensive discussion.
People “love the independence. They also love the privacy, the freedom, (there are) a lot of reasons why somebody would switch to Telegram,” Durov told Carlson.
He is also not shy of posting messages on his own Telegram channel, claiming to lead a solitary life, abstaining from meat, alcohol and even coffee. Always dressed in black, he cultivates a resemblance to the actor Keanu Reeves in the film Matrix.
In July, he boasted of being the biological father of more than 100 children thanks to his sperm donations in a dozen countries, describing this as a “civic duty” in an attitude to parenting that echoes that of a fellow tech mogul, the X and Tesla chief Elon Musk.
According to Forbes magazine’s latest estimate, Durov’s fortune is USD 15.5 billion. But toncoin, the cryptocurrency he created, has plummeted by more than 15 percent since the announcement of his arrest.
Telegram has long been in the sights of European judicial authorities over allegations it spreads conspiracy theories, shared calls for murder and hosts drug sales platforms. Durov, however, insists that he responds to every request to remove content calling for violence or murder.
Numerous questions have been raised about the timing and circumstances of Durov’s detention, with supporters seeing him as a freedom of speech champion and detractors as a menace who wilfully allowed Telegram to get out of control.
Le Monde newspaper reported Wednesday that Durov had met President Emmanuel Macron on several occasions prior to receiving French nationality in 2021, via a special procedure reserved for those deemed to have made a special contribution to France.
The Wall Street Journal added that at one lunch in 2018, Macron — who along with his team was in the past an avid user of Telegram — had suggested it should be headquartered in Paris, but Durov refused.
According to a source close to the case, confirming a story first published on the Politico news site, both Pavel Durov and his elder brother Nikolai, a lower-profile figure seen as the mathematical brain behind Telegram, have been wanted by France since March this year.
In a post on X to address what he called “false information” concerning the case, Macron said Durov’s arrest was “in no way a political decision” and it was “up to the judges to rule”.
It would be helpful to the global public to understand more details about why he was arrested
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 27, 2024
In Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the charges were very serious and thus needed “no less serious evidence”.
Among those voicing support for Durov is his fellow tech tycoon Musk, who has posted comments under the hashtag #FreePavel.
After the charges, Musk posted a meme on X of a surveillance camera attached to buildings inscribed with France’s motto, “liberty, equality, fraternity.”
This story was published via AFP News
(Main and featured image: Steve Jennings/ Getty Images North America/ AFP)
Telegram is run by Russian-born tech entrepreneur Pavel Durov.
Pavel Durov is the owner, founder and CEO of Telegram.
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