Who Is Telegram’s Billionaire Founder Pavel Durov Who All of a sudden Made Headlines?

Pavel Durov, the 39-year-old billionaire founder and CEO of the favored messaging app Telegram, who has traditionally flown underneath the radar, immediately made headlines over the weekend after he was arrested in a Paris airport on Saturday (Aug. 25), in line with native media studies that had been later confirmed by French legislation enforcement. The shock information got here after Telegram confronted backlash for enabling prison actions by its encrypted messaging platform, and Durov was reportedly held accountable.

Telegram messages are encrypted, which means no exterior affect—not even the corporate itself or legislation enforcement—can see conversations that happen on the app. This has made the platform a middle at no cost speech, notably in non-democratic nations that stifle information on the state stage. The flip facet, nevertheless, is that Telegram has additionally turn into a breeding floor for prison actions, extremism and disinformation. Durov’s arrest was particularly associated to Telegram’s lack of content material moderation, which has reportedly led to the propagation of pedophilia.

“Telegram abides byE.U.U legal guidelines, together with the Digital Providers Act,” the corporate mentioned in a press release on X on Sunday, including, “Telegram’s CEO Pavel Durov has nothing to cover and travels ceaselessly in Europe.”

A possible prison trial may set a precedent within the European Union for executives of social media corporations being held chargeable for content material moderation on their platforms. The most just lately handed relevant laws in theE.U.. is the Digital Providers Act (DSA),  which goals “to create a safer digital area by which the basic rights of all customers of digital companies are protected,” together with stronger safety of kids on-line and fewer publicity to unlawful content material. The DSA is mostly thought-about extra strict than earlier rules and was pushed over the end line after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. Up to now, there have solely been two main rulings regarding the DSA. The primary, Delfi AS v. Estonia, upheld the net platform Delfi as responsible for hate speech. The second, Index.hu Zrt v. Hungary, decided the case to be an infringement on freedom of expression.

“This arrest might break the holding sample because it has generated a brand new outbreak of public discourse about encryption and platform duty,” Alexander Linton, a director at Oxen Privateness Tech Basis, a world privateness tech nonprofit primarily based in Australia, instructed Observer. “As a consequence of uncertainty, individuals might flip to extra resilient options.” Linton defined that one possibility consists of Session, a decentralized, end-to-end encrypted messaging app run by a neighborhood of node operators from world wide.

Durov, initially from Russia, based Telegram in 2013 together with his brother, Nikolai Durov. Right now, the app has greater than 950 million lively customers globally. Durov has been traditionally secretive about sharing the place the corporate operates over time. Media studies present Durov has been primarily based out of Dubai since 2017 when he fled Russia after refusing to reveal information to the Russian authorities. Durov turned a naturalized citizen of France and the United Arab Emirates in 2021. Arabian Enterprise named Durov the strongest entrepreneur in Dubai in 2023. Forbes estimates his web value to be round $15.5 billion.

For now, Telegram stays operational whereas French officers examine the case. French President Emmanuel Macron wrote on X about Durov’s arrest, “It’s by no means a political resolution. It’s as much as the judges to rule on the matter.”