Telegram CEO Pavel Durov's Arrest Linked to Sweeping Criminal Investigation

French prosecutors gave preliminary accusation successful a press release connected Monday astir the probe into Telegram CEO Pavel Durov, who was arrested abruptly connected Saturday astatine Paris's Le Bourget airport. Durov has not yet been charged with immoderate crime, but officials said that helium is being held arsenic portion of an probe “against idiosyncratic unnamed” and tin beryllium held successful constabulary custody until Wednesday.

The probe began connected July 8 and involves wide ranging charges related to alleged wealth laundering, violations related to import and export of encryption tools, refusal to cooperate with instrumentality enforcement, and “complicity” successful cause trafficking, possession and organisation of kid pornography, and more.

The probe was initiated by “Section J3” cybercrime prosecutors and has progressive collaboration with France's Centre for the Fight against Cybercrime (C3N) and Anti-Fraud National Office (ONAF), according to the property release. “It is wrong this procedural model successful which Pavel Durov was questioned by the investigators,” Paris authoritative Laure Beccuau wrote successful the statement.

Telegram did not respond to aggregate requests for remark astir the probe but asserted successful a statement posted to the company's quality transmission connected Sunday that Durov has “nothing to hide.”

“Given the beingness of respective preliminary investigations successful France concerning Telegram successful narration to the extortion of minors' rights and successful practice with different French probe units—for instance, connected cyber-harassment—the apprehension of Durov, does not look to maine similar a highly exceptional move,” says Cannelle Lavite, a French lawyer who specializes successful escaped code matters.

Lavite notes that Durov is simply a French national who was arrested successful French territory with an apprehension warrant issued by French judges. She adds that the database of charges progressive successful the probe is “extensive,” a wide nett that she says is not wholly astonishing successful the discourse of “France's ambiguous legislative arsenal” meant to equilibrium contented moderation and escaped speech.

Durov is simply a arguable fig for his enactment of Telegram, successful ample portion due to the fact that helium has not typically cooperated with calls to mean the platform's content. In immoderate ways, this has positioned him arsenic a escaped code defender against authorities censorship, but it has besides made Telegram a haven for hate speech, transgression activity, and abuse. Additionally, the level is often billed arsenic a unafraid connection tool, but overmuch of it is open and accessible by default.

“Telegram is not chiefly an encrypted messenger; astir radical usage it astir arsenic a societal network, and they’re not utilizing immoderate of its features that person end-to-end encryption,” says John Scott-Railton, elder researcher astatine Citizen Lab. “The accusation determination is that Telegram has a wide scope of abilities and entree to perchance bash contented moderation and respond to lawful requests. This puts Pavel Durov precise overmuch successful the halfway of each kinds of imaginable governmental pressure.”

On apical of each of this, galore researchers person questioned whether Telegram's end-to-end encryption is durable erstwhile users bash elite to alteration it.

French President Emmanuel Macron said successful a societal media post connected Monday that “France is profoundly committed to state of look and connection … The apprehension of the president of Telegram connected French ungraded took spot arsenic portion of an ongoing judicial investigation. It is successful nary mode a governmental decision.”

News of Durov's apprehension is fueling concerns, though, that the determination could endanger Telegram's stableness and undermine the platform. The lawsuit seems poised, too, to person implications successful longstanding debates astir the satellite astir societal media moderation, authorities influence, and usage of privacy-preserving end-to-end encryption.

Lavite says that the lawsuit surely invokes debates astir “the equilibrium betwixt the close to encrypted connection and escaped code connected the 1 hand, and users' protection—content moderation—on the different hand.” But she notes that determination is simply a batch of accusation astir the probe that is chartless and “a batch of blurry zones still.”

On Monday afternoon, Telegram seemed to beryllium receiving a download boost from the situation, moving from 18th to 8th spot successful Apple's US App Store apps ranking. Global iOS downloads were up by 4 percent and successful France the app was fig 1 successful the App Store societal web class and fig 3 overall.