Telegram is in a double bind with its CEO and co-founder, Pavel Durov, charged in France for allowing illegal content on the platform. What he decides to do next could go against the company’s core values and shatter its reputation.  

The main charges in France are allegations that Telegram was complicit in storing and distributing child sexual abuse material (CSAM) and facilitating drug trafficking, organised fraud, and other illegal transactions.

“Telegram as a company is in a dilemma,” Yevgeniy Golovchenko, assistant professor with the department of political science at the University of Copenhagen, told Euronews Next.

“On one hand, they probably do not want to have this kind of friction in this escalation that we’re seeing right now, so they do have some incentive to comply with French laws,” Golovchenko said.

“On the other hand, if they do, it signals to the world that they are willing to actually increase moderation, and they’ll be going against the core of their product”. 

Anti-government brand

Telegram is marketed as a platform that does not moderate much or deliver user data to states, although it could as the end-to-end encryption is not a default setting, meaning that many users do not know their data is being kept unless they select encryption for each message. 

Launched in 2013 by Durov and his brother Nikolai, Telegram started its life as a messaging app that prioritised speed, security, and a way to avoid government interference. 

The idea came after Durov’s earlier social media venture, Russia’s largest social network VKontakte (VK), faced pressure from Russian authorities to hand over personal data to Russia’s security services, the FSB.

This included a demand to block the account of the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

Durov consequently left Russia, later selling VK and then starting Telegram, which as of July 2024, garnered more than 950 million monthly active users worldwide. 

“Telegram’s reputation is [as] a project that goes against cooperation with the state,” said Golovchenko, adding that Durov’s personal story of leaving Russia and withstanding multiple bans across the world underlines this brand.

If Durov does not collaborate with French authorities to tighten content moderation, it could “strengthen this [anti-government] brand for users,” he added.

‘Brazenly ignore regulation’

But Telegram already had a questionable reputation. 

The app has become a popular tool to organise anti-government protests, such as in Iran or Belarus, and a tool of communication in the Ukraine war. But it has similarly been used by Russia’s military and propaganda groups as well as global extremist and criminal organisations. 

“I think [the arrest] already has had an implication on Telegram’s reputation. To me, Telegram was never that virgin-like,” William Echikson from the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA) told Euronews Next. 

“I’ve never known a company that so brazenly just ignored the regulators and it doesn’t surprise me they ignored the law,” he added. 

Despite Russia’s attempts to ban Telegram in 2018, public officials are now trying to say the country should help Durov, which “could help the Russian propaganda narrative about the West being authoritarian and not having enough freedom,” Golovchenko said.

As Telegram has played a part in both sides of the war in Ukraine, which has been critical of the app due to national security fears of it not being neutral or secure enough, which side the platform falls on for content moderation could further increase criticism of the app in Ukraine and praise by Russia, or the opposite.  

It is extremely rare for Ilya Yashin, a fierce critic of Vladimir Putin who was recently released from prison, and Margarita Simonyan, a rabid Kremlin propagandist, to find common ground.

But in the hours after the surprise arrest of Pavel Durov, the reclusive founder of the Telegram messaging app, both Yashin and Simonyan – along with thousands of other Russians across the political spectrum – united in demanding his release, underscoring the unique place Telegram holds as Russia’s most popular messaging app.

On Monday evening, prosecutors in France announced that Durov was being held in connection with an investigation into criminal activity on the platform and a lack of cooperation with law enforcement. The Paris prosecutor, Laure Beccuau, said the investigation concerned crimes related to illicit transactions, child sexual abuse, fraud and the refusal to communicate information to authorities.

“I do not consider Pavel Durov to be a criminal and I hope he will be able to prove his innocence in court,” Yashin wrote on X on Monday.

The sentiment was echoed across the opposition, who first came to admire Durov when, as the 27-year-old CEO of the social media platform VKontakte, he received a request from the FSB to take down the pages of opposition groups.

Durov refused and would eventually be forced to sell VKontakte to the state, making him a rare tech mogul to defy the Russian authorities.

His next project, the messaging app Telegram, was built on the principle of user privacy. It also introduced “channels” that allow moderators to quickly disseminate information to large numbers of followers, combining the reach and immediacy of a Twitter/X feed with the focus of an email newsletter – features that have made it a key platform for organising anti-Putin protests.

Despite growing rumours that Durov may have fallen under the Kremlin’s influence, Telegram has remained the primary channel for dissent in Russia, especially after the outbreak of the war, as Putin cracked down on independent media outlets and banned western social media platforms.

Many in the Russian opposition therefore quickly expressed concerns that Durov’s cooperation with French authorities could prompt Moscow to shut down the platform domestically or open the door to similar demands to gain access to Telegram from the Russian government.

For the Kremlin, which has repeatedly clashed with Durov and unsuccessfully tried to ban Telegram, the arrest presented a surprising propaganda coup.

On state talkshows and in print media, Durov’s detention has been portrayed by Russian officials as an example of western hypocrisy over free speech. Kremlin propagandists also quickly put forward unfounded theories suggesting that western intelligence agencies orchestrated Durov’s arrest to gain access to Telegram’s “keys”, including private chats and data of millions of Russians.

“Everyone who is used to using the platform for sensitive conversations should delete those conversations right now and never do it again,” warned Kremlin propagandist Simonyan in a Telegram post.

“Durov has been shut down to get the keys. And he’s going to give them.”

Baza, a Telegram channel affiliated with Russia’s security apparatus, reported that the defence ministry, prominent businessmen, and officers from several security agencies were swiftly instructed to delete work-related messages from the app.

With Durov’s fate in question, so too is the future of Telegram. Analysts believe that the arrest could hinder Telegram’s future fundraising efforts and undermine its financial stability.

There are also growing concerns about the app’s ability to maintain its core privacy protections, particularly after reports from French media that law enforcement agents are trying to access Telegram’s database of private chats.

The potential collapse of Telegram – which by early 2023 handled up to 80% of Russia’s total messenger traffic – could have a far-reaching impact on Russian society.

One group particularly concerned with Durov’s arrest is the Russian military, along with a cohort of pro-war bloggers and reporters who have gained prominence by covering the conflict on Telegram.

Since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, Telegram has served both as a communication tool within the Russian army and as a platform for the Kremlin to convey its narrative of the war to ordinary Russians.

“They practically detained the head of communications for the Russian army,” lamented the popular Russian military blogger channel, Povernutie na Z Voine, in a Telegram post.

Ordinary Ukrainians and the country’s military also use Telegram to raise funds for the army and blog about the war. However, for internal communications, the army is known to primarily rely on the Signal platform.

Rybar, a leading military analyst close to the Russian leadership described Telegram as “perhaps the main means of units’ command and control”.

Rybar added that Durov’s arrest has exposed the weaknesses in Russia’s communication channels and underscored the urgent need to develop state-controlled apps.

“It would be both quite sad and somewhat amusing if Durov’s arrest turned out to be the catalyst for changes in communication within the Russian armed forces,” he concluded.