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Messaging app Telegram has stated its chief government has “nothing to cover” after French authorities detained Pavel Durov on the weekend for alleged failures in content material moderation.
In a shock transfer that has escalated the worldwide debate over free speech and raised tensions with Moscow, the Russia-born billionaire was arrested at Paris-Le Bourget airport when he arrived within the nation on his non-public jet from Azerbaijan on Saturday night, in line with French information company AFP.
The Paris prosecutor’s workplace has confirmed an energetic investigation into Durov, and French media have reported he’s alleged to have did not average adequately legal exercise on the platform.
In a press release on Sunday, Dubai-based Telegram stated its moderation was “inside business requirements and continuously enhancing”, including that it was abiding by EU legal guidelines together with the Digital Companies Act. The laws, which got here into power this 12 months, requires platforms to police dangerous content material and disinformation extra carefully, or danger penalties or being restricted within the bloc.
“It’s absurd to assert {that a} platform or its proprietor are accountable for abuse of that platform,” Telegram stated. “We’re awaiting a immediate decision of this example. Telegram is with you all.”
Durov’s detainment marks probably the most drastic nationwide motion in opposition to a social media chief to this point and threatens to additional ignite international debate over whether or not platforms ought to prioritise on-line security or free speech. Free speech proponents reminiscent of Elon Musk have been hitting out at French authorities, with the billionaire proprietor of rival platform X posting the hashtag “#freepavel” on his platform.
French authorities had been investigating whether or not Telegram’s moderation failures had helped facilitate criminality together with terrorism, drug peddling, cash laundering, fraud and youngster exploitation, in line with a number of French tv retailers. Some stories prompt there had been a warrant out for Durov’s arrest, however Telegram on Sunday stated the entrepreneur “has nothing to cover and travels incessantly in Europe”.
Durov has been often called the “Mark Zuckerberg of Russia” after co-founding the nation’s hottest social media community, VKontakte, in his native St Petersburg in 2007. He fled Russia in 2014 after allegedly refusing to adjust to Moscow’s calls for for entry to the information of Ukrainian customers protesting in opposition to a pro-Russia administration.
Based in 2013, Telegram has exploded in recognition, nearing 1bn customers and changing into one of many key communication instruments in battle zones and humanitarian crises such because the Russia-Ukraine warfare and the Israel-Hamas battle.
Durov has taken a hands-off method to moderation and forged the app as unassailable by governments. Nevertheless, some researchers have warned that it has turn into a hub for illicit exercise and extremism consequently.
Whereas Durov now has twin French-Emirati citizenship, his Russian roots prompted some lawmakers in Moscow to call for his release and counsel the arrest was politically motivated, whereas the Russian embassy in France stated it had requested consular entry to Durov.
Lately, Durov has tried to distance himself and the app from Russia, amid claims by critics that the Kremlin may nonetheless have hyperlinks to or leverage over Telegram.
“He thought his greatest issues have been in Russia and left . . . he wished to be a superb ‘citizen of the world’, residing properly and not using a homeland,” former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, now a distinguished rightwing commentator, wrote on his Telegram channel on Sunday.
“He miscalculated. To our widespread enemies, he’s nonetheless Russian — unpredictable and harmful, of various blood.”
