On Friday, August 24, 2024, at 8 p.m., Pavel Durov, co-founder and current CEO of Telegram, was detained at Le Bourget airport in Paris, France, while on a stopover coming from Baku, Azerbaijan. Durov, aware of an arrest warrant against him, usually avoided Europe, but this time he made the mistake of entering France. The charges that have been circulated in the media include terrorism, drug trafficking, fraud and money laundering, although the main one is the lack of moderation on Telegram, which has enabled illicit activities. He is not directly charged with the other offenses, but is accused of being an accomplice for failing to moderate content on the platform.
Durov is currently in custody and is likely to be remanded in custody. Authorities are pressuring him to censor Telegram, threatening him with jail if he does not. Pavel and his brother Nicolay have always been reluctant to censor content on Telegram, which is end-to-end encrypted, preventing the platform itself from seeing what users write.
This incident takes place in a context of increasing governmental pressure to control and censor content on the Internet. In 2007, Julio Alonso, founder of Weblogs SL, was sued for defamation by the Sociedad General de Autores y Editores (SGAE) after publishing a critical article, sparking a debate about the limits of online criticism. In 2014, the Durov brothers left Russia after refusing to censor opposition groups on their previous platform, VKontakte.
In 2018, the European Union implemented the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which includes content moderation. In 2019, Reddit tightened its moderation policies following incidents of hate speech and misinformation. In 2020, in Spain, the removal of content on Meneame.net was discussed, intensifying the debate during the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2021, the EU's Digital Services Act (DSA) began regulating content moderation on large platforms.
In 2022, Elon Musk bought Twitter and laid off half of the staff, many of whom were engaged in content moderation. In November 2022, Reddit faced a lawsuit in the United States for failing to adequately moderate content that incited violence. In 2023, Microsoft Teams had problems moderating explicit content. In June 2023, Musk promised to comply with the DSA, although he noted that he would not go beyond what the law requires.
Durov's arrest has been criticized by figures such as Tucker Carlson, Juan Ramon Rayo and Jordan Peterson, who see it as an attack on free speech and an attempt by governments to control independent platforms. Greenwald also criticizes Western democracies for pressuring platforms to censor content that does not fit their narratives.
Durov's arrest is an example of increasing government pressure to control free speech on digital platforms.
