Arrested as he got off his private jet on Saturday evening, the Telegram boss will remain in police custody until Wednesday. Even before the hypothetical indictment of Pavel Durov on twelve counts – including “laundering of crimes or offences in an organised gang” – the fate reserved by the French justice system for the founder of the application with more than 900 million users sounds like a warning to all other entrepreneurs in messaging and social networks, from Mark Zuckerberg (Meta) to Evan Spiegel (Snap) or Elon Musk (X).
By allowing themselves to hold the suspect for 96 hours instead of 24 hours as AFP claims, investigators considered that the Russian billionaire could prove to be an accomplice in drug trafficking due to his role as president of Telegram, a messaging service that has become the communications tool for many outlaws. Unless a more active criminal role is discovered, his sole status as a boss regularly refusing to cooperate with the police and gendarmerie services on drug cases, but also on child sex crimes and terrorism, leads him to the judge’s office, escorted by uniformed officials.
Severity of judges
While the wildest conjectures also try to explain the arrest of Pavel Durov by the role of the Telegram application in the Ukrainian conflict and in the global Russian disinformation machine, the highest level of the State has come to deny any hidden agenda in this affair. “The arrest of the president of Telegram on French territory took place as part of an ongoing judicial investigation. This is in no way a political decision,” specified Emmanuel Macron, the President of the Republic, on X on Monday. From the point of view of the regulation of large online platforms, such severity by investigating judges is nonetheless unprecedented.
Above all, it could be a landmark as France, and Europe more broadly with its regulation on digital services (known as DSA), has set out on a crusade to enforce its laws of the physical world even in digital spaces. That is to say, where tech bosses have wanted to decree their own rules…
Neutral technology
Justice has already struck hard against smaller online services. Recently, the director of Coco was arrested in Bulgaria while his discussion website was used to organize ambushes, one of which was fatal.
Basically, Pavel Durof has vowed to become a little freer every day than the day before, he sticks to his principles. He regularly assures that he stood up to the Russian intelligence service and preferred exile from his native country rather than cooperate with the latter who wanted to trap his application for espionage purposes. “Pavel Durov has built an image of intransigence by also refusing to work with the FBI,” underlines Rayna Stamboliyska, a specialist in digital diplomacy.
But like the boss of Telegram, the way of thinking of tech bosses leads them to refuse as much as possible to see States stick their noses into their servers and the rules of their platforms. Contrary to experts like Asma Mhalla who dissects in her book “Technolopolitique” (éditions du Seuil) the political nature of platforms, they all want to consider that technology is neutral.
Elon Musk’s X Under Investigation
Thus, Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta group is defending tooth and nail the encryption of messages on Whatsapp against various bills around the world that are trying to weaken the practice, which is nevertheless appreciated by criminal networks. Europol is advocating for a system that allows the text of messages to be read only to detect paedophile content. “Whatever the good intentions, undermining end-to-end encryption is always a bad idea and a huge risk for freedom and society!” replied Whatsapp CEO Will Cathcart, fearing an unprecedented attack on the confidentiality of correspondence of honest citizens.
But the most vindictive tech boss against the regulation of large platforms is undoubtedly Elon Musk. Self-proclaimed “absolutist of freedom of expression”, the owner of X is amused by Europe’s criticism of the former Twitter and publicly insults the European commissioners who launched an investigation on behalf of the DSA on the subject. Among other things, the Tesla boss’s platform is accused of alleged failures in its obligation to combat illegal content. An accusation identical in substance to what is suspected of Telegram even though the latter, less used in Europe than X, is not subject to the strictest European regulations.
Determination displayed
This problem of moderating illegal content also arises at Snap, but in different terms. Despite a displayed good will and a lively dialogue with the authorities, It is still as easy as ever for anyone who wants to sell drugs to promote it there. The platform claims to be struggling to keep up with the imagination of dealers who name the substances they sell with words or emojis so commonplace that the systems for filtering and deleting incriminating messages do not always work. But the police and a recent Senate report are getting impatient.
