Telegram CEO’s arrest is a moment of social media reckoning
The recent arrest of Telegram founder and Chief Executive Officer Pavel Durov near Paris has sent shockwaves through the tech world. Elon Musk called on France to “free Pavel" to avert a threat to democracy; Paul Graham, the co-founder of leading Silicon Valley accelerator Y Combinator, suggested it would hurt the country’s chances of being “a major startup hub." Yet, while some are citing a French-led assault on free speech and innovation, the reality is more nuanced.
Durov’s detention is not a shocking act of government overreach, but the culmination of years of tension between his ultra-lax approach to oversight and growing concern about Telegram’s role in enabling criminal activity. The charges are extensive and serious, covering Telegram’s complicity in the distribution of child sexual-abuse material (CSAM), drug trafficking and money laundering.
While the likes of Meta Platforms, TikTok and Alphabet’s YouTube have much stricter bans on such activities, Durov’s arrest should be taken as a sign that the “no consequences" era for social media is fading as governments push to make companies more accountable for what happens on their apps. Telegram is one of the world’s biggest social media platforms, with an estimated 900 million monthly users, many of whom follow popular channels that broadcast content to thousands of people.
It’s also unique in its approach to overseeing all that activity: It doesn’t. While its peers invest heavily in content moderation and cooperate with law enforcement, Telegram has a minimal-intervention policy that has contributed to its low operational costs.
Durov once told the Financial Times that each Telegram user cost the company just 70 cents a year to support. His platform has been linked
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