New developments in the case of Telegram boss Pawel Durov
The arrest of Russian entrepreneur, Telegram founder and CEO Pavel Durov last Saturday, 24 August, made waves around the world. Over the last few days and hours, there have been many reports, statements and, of course, rumours about the background and significance of this incident. Here is an overview of some of the most interesting articles and developments by Maike Gosch.
Source: Maike Gosch, Thought pages, 28 Aug 2024
On Monday, the French public prosecutor’s office announced in a press release that Pawel Durow had been taken into custody as part of a “judicial investigation initiated on 8 July”. Interestingly, there is no mention of an arrest here. The public prosecutor’s office also states twelve different charges for which Durov was taken into custody, including Aiding and abetting possession of child pornography images, drug trafficking and organised fraud. Other charges include conspiracy to commit a felony or misdemeanour punishable by at least five years’ imprisonment and money laundering.
Telegram is also accused of refusing to provide the authorities with “information or documents necessary for the execution and utilisation of legally authorised interception measures”. In addition, the public prosecutor’s office announced that Durow would remain in custody until Wednesday. Interestingly, the press release from the public prosecutor’s office mentions 8 July 2024 as the date of the opening of the investigation against Durov, i.e. the day after the early parliamentary elections in France, which were held in two rounds on 30 June and 7 July.
Telegram itself stated on X (formerly Twitter) on Monday evening that the company complies with EU laws, including the Digital Services Act, and that moderation meets industry standards and is constantly being improved.
At the same time, the US House of Representatives Committee on Legal Affairs published a letter on X on Tuesday from Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta (which owns Facebook and WhatsApp ), in which he reported on pressure from the Biden administration on his employees to exercise censorship in the context of the coronavirus crisis, including in cases of humour and satire. He goes on to describe how his staff censored and suppressed misinformation about the Hunter Biden laptop story from intelligence agencies and fact-checkers (who falsely claimed it was a Russian disinformation campaign). Finally, he says he tried to support the election infrastructure in the last presidential election through donations. All his efforts were politically neutral. But as this support had aroused mistrust, he would not do so again in the upcoming election.
With this letter, Mark Zuckerberg confirms what many commentators and analysts have long suspected, namely how great the pressure on Meta (and therefore Facebook and WhatsApp) was and is to censor undesirable content. This confirmation could also be relevant with regard to the arrest of the Telegram founder, as there are only two dominant providers of messaging services that offer end-to-end encryption, WhatsApp and Telegram.
The President of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, also criticised the arrest:
Shortly after Durov’s arrest became known, there was speculation on X that Durov had negotiated his return to Russia with President Putin just days before and that he was therefore arrested to prevent his return to Russia and possible cooperation between Telegram and the Russian government. There is also speculation about possible closer cooperation with the Russian government behind the scenes on particularly Ukrainian or Russian opposition X accounts and reports that Durov is said to have been in Russia 50 times between 2015 and 2021, from which these commentators conclude that there was at least a closer connection between Durov and Russian authorities than is generally known.
However, according to reports in the German and international press, Russian President Vladimir Putin refused to meet with Durov in Batu shortly before his trip to Paris.
Other commentators , however, suspected that Durov had deliberately placed himself under the “protection” of the West and had flown to Paris to be arrested in order to escape a possible “forced embrace” by Russia.
On the afternoon of 27 August 2024, the French satirical magazine Le Canard Enchainé published a report (not satire) that Durov had told the police officers who arrested him that he was expected for dinner by French President Macron. This was denied by the French government. This means that either Durov lied here, or the police officers or witnesses who made these statements lied, or President Macron set him up, which would be an incredible scandal. The fact that it is still unclear why Durov travelled to Paris voluntarily in the first place speaks in favour of Durov’s version.
There was even speculation that Israel was (also) behind Durov’s arrest. This suspicion was based on information from this article in theIsraeli newspaper Ha’aretz, which reports on hacking attacks on Israeli data and Israel’s unsuccessful attempts to have content and users associated with Palestinian terrorist organisations removed from Telegram.
In a press release dated 27 August 2024, the United Arab Emirates also demanded access to Durov, who apparently has not just two (Russian and French) but three citizenships (as representatives of Russia had previously done).
As far as can be seen, this has not yet happened either.
The silence in this matter on the part of Western governments (EU and USA) as well as most NGOs and organisations that traditionally campaign for freedom of expression and freedom of the press or a free internet is striking.
Another X user researched a very interesting detail:
“According to a report by the EU Disinfo Lab, Telegram has processes in place for reporting child abuse, pornography, copyright infringements, violence, span, drugs, and leaking of personal information.
But it does not report on one (so called) offence: “disinformation”.
This is because Telegram refused to sign the “Code of Practice on Disinformation – future Code of Conduct under DSA”.
As the EU Disinfo Lab states:
“Overall, at the EU level, the only policy on disinformation enforceable on Telegram consists of the general DSA obligations applicable to all online platforms. Hence, it is entirely up to Telegram to decide if and how it wants to tackle the disinformation challenge.” Source disinfo.eu
so:
“According to a report by the EU Disinfo Lab, Telegram has procedures in place for reporting child abuse, pornography, copyright infringement, violence, span, drugs and disclosure of personal information.
But one (so-called) offence is not reported: “disinformation”.
This is because Telegram has refused to sign the “Code of Practice on Disinformation – future Code of Conduct under DSA”.
As the EU Disinfo Lab states:
“Overall, at EU level, the only internal regulation regarding disinformation that is enforceable at Telegram consists of the general DSA obligations that apply to all online platforms. It is therefore up to Telegram alone to decide whether and how it wants to address the challenge of disinformation.”
Source disinfo.eu
So, as many suspect, is the arrest also about bringing Telegram into line with the (EU) as part of the all-encompassing campaign to “combat disinformation”? If so, then the repression against Telegram could be categorised as part of a larger campaign, which also includes the current threats from the EU against Elon Musk and X. However, there is no mention of disinformation in the 12 points listed by the public prosecutor’s office.
French lawyer and activist Juan Branco drew attention to another point, also on X: he recalls that in 2021, Pavel Durov was granted French citizenship on the direct orders of the Elysée Palace (i.e. the French government and Macron), despite being a foreigner who did not live in France, in recognition of his special services to the French nation, for the same messenger service and work for which he has now been arrested.
We are watching with interest to see what happens next. According to the French public prosecutor’s office, Pavel Durov should be released from police custody by Wednesday evening (28 August 2024) at the latest or brought before an investigating judge. Hopefully the fog will soon clear somewhat in this case, which is incredible in many respects and which, as if under a burning glass, brings all the challenges, opportunities and risks of our current internet information age into sharp relief.
