Telegram CEO Pavel Durov charged by French prosecutors

Pavel Durov, the CEO and co-founder of the news and messaging app Telegram, has been charged in France with enabling numerous criminal transactions, which carries a maximum penalty of ten years in prison and a fine of €500,000, according to a press release from French prosecutors published Wednesday evening.

Durov had been held in French custody since Saturday and was transferred to a French court on Wednesday for questioning.   

French prosecutors said Monday that Durov was detained as part of a larger investigation that was opened in July into an unnamed individual. Prosecutors said the person was accused of “complicity” in various criminal activities including the facilitation of the transfer of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) and drug trafficking.

Charges that the prosecutor’s office cited seemed to specifically refer to Telegram, including failure to register the platform’s encrypted messaging option with the French government.

Telegram, under Durov’s leadership, has been particularly reluctant to moderate content or cooperate with law enforcement or courts. Durov, born in the former Soviet Union, has presented himself as a free speech absolutist and moved Telegram’s headquarters from Russia to the United Arab Emirates after he said the Kremlin demanded he turn over users’ data. 

Durov’s arrest has sparked outcry and speculation from some free speech advocates and high-profile members of the tech community, who have suggested that the arrest by French authorities was conducted in an effort to control or access communications on the platform.

On Monday, French President Emmanuel Macron addressed the outrage, writing in a post on X that “The arrest of the head of Telegram on French territory took place in the context of a judicial inquiry in process. It was not in any way a political decision.”

While Durov’s approach has earned him praise from far-right and libertarian figures, it has frustrated child safety groups, which say that Telegram has become a central hub for child sexual abuse material (CSAM) and is the only major internet platform to be completely uncooperative in their attempts to curb that content.

A Telegram spokesperson told NBC News on Tuesday that Telegram uses a combination of moderators, artificial intelligence and user reports to remove public channels that host CSAM material. Telegram publishes a daily report that claims it removes thousands of channels a day for CSAM. 

But the site’s terms of service says there is no means for reporting illegal activity in private Telegram chats and that it has never given any government any information on a user. That is a stark contrast from other major tech platforms, many of which issue regular reports detailing compliance with court orders and warrants from governments around the world.

Telegram didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment about Durov’s indictment.