A lawyer for Telegram chief Pavel Durov, who is the target of an unprecedented investigation in France, said on Thursday it was “absurd” to suggest the head of a social network was responsible for any criminal acts committed on the platform.
Underscoring the uneasy relationship between governments and social media giants, the case against Durov could be seen as a warning to tech titans about how to deal with alleged illegality in their apps.
The Kremlin has also weighed in on a case that has further strained Russia’s relations with France, saying the prosecution of a Russian-born tech boss accused of allowing illegal content to run on a platform used closely 1 billion people, it should not turn into “political persecution”.
A French judge placed Durov under formal investigation on Wednesday, four days after police arrested him at Le Bourget airport near Paris, fueling debate over where freedom of speech ends and law enforcement begins.
Lawyer David-Olivier Kaminski, who is representing Durov in France, said it was “absurd to say that a platform or its boss is responsible for any abuse” committed on the platform and that Telegram was abiding by European laws.
The French judge said on Wednesday that Durov was suspected of complicity in running an online platform that allowed illegal transactions, images of child sexual abuse and drug trafficking.
Durov, 39, is also being investigated for alleged money laundering and refusing to cooperate with judicial authorities. The platform said this week that Durov had “nothing to hide”.
Durov’s arrest is the first for a CEO of a major messaging platform. But with tensions rising between governments and social media giants, it’s not the first time Telegram has run afoul of police and judicial authorities.
Follow the latest on the arrest of Telegram founder Pavel Durov:
In 2023, a Brazilian court ordered a temporary suspension of the app until it complies with an order to share information on extremist and neo-Nazi groups that use the platform.
So a ‘better job’?
A year ago, as a Brazilian Supreme Court judge ordered the suspension of Telegram, saying it had repeatedly refused to comply with court orders, Durov blamed his company’s shortcomings for the email issues, saying that ” we definitely could have done a better job.”
“I am confident that once a reliable communication channel is established, we will be able to efficiently process requests to remove public channels that are illegal in Brazil,” he wrote.
A French police source said this week that Telegram was considered much less willing to cooperate with authorities than other social media. But others are also facing heat from authorities.
Brazilian Supreme Court judge Alexandre de Moraes ordered billionaire Elon Musk on Wednesday to appoint a legal representative for his messaging platform X in Brazil within 24 hours or face having the site suspended in the country.
Musk, the billionaire owner of X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, had said after reports of Durov’s ban: “It’s 2030 in Europe and you’re being executed for liking a meme.”
Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg also said this week that President Biden’s administration had pressured the company to “censor” COVID-19 content during the pandemic, apparently referring to White House requests to remove misinformation about with the coronavirus and vaccines.
Being placed under official investigation in France does not imply guilt or necessarily lead to a trial, but indicates that judges consider there is sufficient evidence to proceed with the investigation. Investigations can take years before they are brought to trial or shelved.
Durov, who spent four days in police custody after his arrest, was granted bail on the condition that he pay 5 million euros ($5.6 million) and not leave French territory.
He will also have to report twice a week to the police of the city where he will be staying. He will have to be home at specific times, a judicial source said, without saying where he would live or how many hours a day he would have to be there.
France-Russia tensions
Durov has French, United Arab Emirates and Russian citizenships. His arrest and the charges against him have taken relations between France and Russia to a new low, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday.
Telegram is particularly influential in Russia, Ukraine and the republics of the former Soviet Union. The platform has become crucial for battlefield communications in the war in Ukraine and is used by governments and soldiers on both sides of the war to share war-related news and propaganda.
“The main thing is that what is happening in France does not turn into political persecution,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Thursday.
“We know that the president of France has denied any (casual) connection with politics, but on the other hand certain accusations are being made. We’ll see what happens next.”
Russia has previously tried, and failed, to block Telegram and has fined the company several times for failing to remove what it considered illegal content.
French President Emmanuel Macron, who has long wanted to position France as a technology hub, has said Durov’s arrest was “in no way a political decision” and that the investigation was decided by judicial authorities, not the government.
Macron had lunch with Durov in 2018 as part of a series of meetings with tech entrepreneurs, a source close to the president said, and Durov was granted French citizenship in 2021 under a rare procedure for high-profile individuals.
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