What does Pavel Durov’s arrest mean for his technological legacy?

The 39-year-old entrepreneur created two technology platforms: one became Russia’s answer to Facebook, while the other became a competitor to WhatsApp. No wonder he has been dubbed the Mark Zuckerberg of Russia.

His net worth is estimated to be around $15.5 billion, according to Forbes. The messaging app he founded, Telegram, is said to be worth more than $30 billion and is developing a public listing.

But Durov’s legacy as a technology champion is now in question. On Saturday, he was arrested in Paris in connection with an investigation into Telegram’s alleged use as a platform for criminal activity.

There is little that the world knows about Durov, apart from glimpses of his life on social media, where he is dressed mostly in black outfits and photographed in picturesque landscapes. However, when Durov makes a rare appearance in the media, it often attracts attention. For example, he spoke to far-right talk show host Tucker Carlson about his views on social media platforms in April and said in July that he had fathered more than 100 children through sperm donation.

His detention by French authorities sparked backlash from the likes of Elon Musk and sparked a wider conversation on topics facing the tech world, such as free speech and content moderation.

From the Soviet Union to Europe and beyond

Durov was born in Russia, where he and his family lived until he was four years old. They then moved to Italy, where Durov had to adapt to a different language and culture. In an interview, he told Carlson that his teachers told him he was destined to fail, which built his competitive spirit and drove him to excel as a student.

Durov and his family eventually returned to Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union, where he completed his studies and founded VKontakte (now called “VK”), a Facebook-like platform, in 2006. It proved massively successful and quickly became the largest social networking site in the country.

Eventually, however, the Kremlin began to interfere in the running of the company, demanding more control over the platform and causing Durov to leave VK and Russia in 2014.

A year before he fled, Durov, together with his brother Nikolai, founded Telegram, making it an uncensored and easily accessible app for all.

After years of moving around Europe and Asia, today the messaging platform and Durov itself are based in Dubai. He also holds citizenship in the United Arab Emirates, France and the Caribbean country of St. Kitts and Nevis.

Telegram has earned a reputation, which can be good or bad, depending on who you ask. With a relatively thin team of about 50 full-time employees, the app proved to be an essential communication tool during the war between Russia and Ukraine. It offers features that its rivals do not; for example, its groups can host up to 200,000 people, as opposed to WhatsApp’s cap of 1,000. It also offers encryption, allows the use of cryptocurrency and offers premium subscriptions.

But some corners of Telegram have come under fire for allegedly spawning criminal activities ranging from child pornography to terrorism and disinformation. The platform has made it relatively easy to moderate content, which is believed to be the reason why illicit content is widely available on Telegram.

“Due to the large segment of activity on #Telegram that is not and has never been end-to-end encrypted, Pavel’s detention is clearly alarming to many Telegram users left wondering about the privacy of what they said in past and who it might be. able to access it,” John Scott-Railton, a senior researcher at the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab, wrote in a post on X.

Countries have flagged these threats more recently: On Tuesday, South Korea called for an investigation into fake, sexually explicit images and videos of women circulating through Telegram chats. Brazil temporarily banned Telegram for refusing to share information about neo-Nazi groups with the country’s police authorities last year. Unesco pointed out in a 2022 investigation that about half of Holocaust-related posts on Telegram either denied or misrepresented the facts.

Durov told him Financial Times Earlier this year, Telegram increased its moderation efforts using artificial intelligence, but did not intend to police people “unless they cross red lines.” Following the arrest of its boss, Telegram said its moderation “is within industry standards and is constantly improving.”

What does Durov’s arrest mean for social media companies?

Telegram has been largely successful in filing charges of facilitating illegal activity on its platform. Through it all, Durov said he aims to protect free speech on the messaging platform.

“Ultimately, privacy is more important than our fear of bad things happening, like terrorism,” he posted in 2015, according to the publication. New York Times.

Meta has been caught in a battle of its own for years regarding free speech, censorship and content moderation. Elon Musk, a self-proclaimed “free speech absolutist” whose platform, X, has been scrutinized by the EU over its content moderation, stepped in to support Durov after his arrest.

#FreePavel
pic.twitter.com/B7AcJWswMs

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 25, 2024

It’s a tricky balance, but arresting tech platform CEOs may not be the best solution, said Kate Ruane, director of the Free Expression Project at the Center for Democracy and Technology in Washington, DC. Washington Post.

“Arresting platform executives for their alleged failures to sufficiently moderate content, even content as disturbing and harmful as content that harms children, starts us down a dangerous path that threatens free speech and gives the government too much power to suppress the speech”, she. said.

Telegram is approaching 1 billion users worldwide. While it’s not yet clear whether Durov’s arrest could change the way the app operates, it certainly raises the stakes in terms of how it moderates content shared on its platform by bad actors.

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