Why Did Telegram's CEO Durov Have a Target on His Back?
© AP Photo / Tatan Syuflana
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Pavel Durov, the Russian-born co-founder of the Telegram encrypted messaging app, was arrested at Paris's Bourget airport where his private jet touched down on Saturday. The tycoon is accused of ostensibly enabling criminal activities through insufficient moderation of the platform, and is to appear in court as a French citizen.
Pavel Durov faces multiple charges relating to the encrypted platform’s lack of moderation, according to French media reports. Authorities claim this implicates the Russian-born IT entrepreneur and co-founder of the Telegram social network in the sharing of content related to terrorism, drug trafficking, fraud, and money laundering. Accused of failing to cooperate with French police, the billionaire who has French and United Arab Emirates citizenship is believed to be facing a 20-year jail term.
The US government wanted to get its hands on Telegram’s code to infiltrate the system and spy on its users, Durov speculated back in an April interview with ex-Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson. The entrepreneur claimed that he had been pressured to allow a "backdoor" in the app for Western intelligence, but he refused, maintaining that Telegram should not be a “player in geopolitics.”
Why did Durov have a target on his back?
The West wanted to hack Telegram’s encrypted messaging platform to surveil online activity and censor free speech, former CIA analyst Larry Johnson told Sputnik. Snooping on dissident views voiced on the platform would enable the West to shut down criticism of its foreign policy in NATO’s ongoing proxy war in Ukraine and Israel’s war on Hamas in Gaza, Johnson stated.
Excessive charges were drummed up against Durov to strike fear in social networks that fail to cave to censorship pressure, Jacques Sapir, director of studies at the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (EHESS) in Paris, told Sputnik.
Durov’s arrest is part of a broader crackdown on truth-seekers and freedom of speech in the West, Hong Kong-based political analyst Angelo Giuliano told Sputnik. He suggested that a deal might be sought with Telegram by French authorities, using Durov as “leverage”.
Durov’s arrest was part of an attempt by WhatsApp’s to elbow out a competitor, Valentin Makarov, president of the Russoft association told Sputnik. People have been switching from the American-owned messaging app to Telegram, he noted, which hosts chat groups of up to 200,000 people, and uses end-to-end encryption to protect users' messages.
Just business? Arrest of Telegram CEO possibly meant to elbow out WhatsApp competitor
— Sputnik (@SputnikInt) August 25, 2024
Though Pavel Durov’s arrest in France is first and foremost a “political action,” it is also an “economic action,” said Valentin Makarov, president of the Russoft association.
“There is… pic.twitter.com/zJFcOZ4Z9r
The real purpose of Durov’s arrest is to blackmail him “into opening a backdoor to Telegram in exchange for his freedom,” investigative journalist Lucy Komisar pointed out to Sputnik. Durov’s arrest spells broader implications amid “an attempt to tighten control of the platforms of the Internet that allow views that challenge the collective West,” she added.
Days after he endorsed former President Donald Trump, Robert F. Kennedy Jr went on X to slam Durov’s arrest as an attack on free speech on social media ahead of the November US presidential elections.
US whistleblower Edward Snowden condemned Durov's arrest as "an assault on the basic human rights of speech and association." He said in a post on X that French President Emmanuel Macron had "descended to the level of taking hostages as a means for gaining access to private communications."
Italy's right-wing Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini went on social media to post that Europe was "now under censorship," and wondered who would be next in line to be gagged, speculating that it might be Elon Musk.
Arrest of Pavel Durov was a “test run” to set a precedent and then target Elon Musk, Naomi Seibt, a German conservative political activist, alleged on X.
Durov is to serve as a warning to any platform owner “who refuses to censor the truth at the behest of governments and intel agencies,” according to Tucker Carlson.
Durov has been arrested because the West is losing control over its ability “to justify war in a faraway land,” Candace Owens, an African American conservative television presenter, tweeted.
Durov is facing up to 20 years in jail “for refusing to censor content on behalf of the globalist oligarchy and their war machine," Italian film producer, Robin Monotti, remarked on X.
Kim Dotcom, an X conservative influencer, warned that "the crackdown against free speech escalates."
Rumble CEO Chris Pavlovski wrote that "France has threatened Rumble, and now they have crossed a red line by arresting Telegram’s CEO, Pavel Durov, reportedly for not censoring speech."
The Telegram team issued a statement on Sunday that it was unjustified to blame the platform or its owners for any abuses that may have taken place on it.
“It is absurd to claim that a platform or its owner are responsible for abuse of that platform,” the statement published on the official Telegram channel said. It added that Telegram abides by EU laws, including the Digital Services Act — its moderation is within industry standards.
