Telegram CEO charged as France investigates app for illegal content
Messaging app said Durov should not be held responsible for abuse of its platform
France has issued preliminary charges against the CEO of Telegram Pavel Durov as its cybercrime authorities investigate the messaging app for hosting potential criminal activity, including enabling money laundering and drug trafficking as well as distributing sexual images of children.
In an unprecedented move against the head of a social media firm, French authorities arrested Durov outside Paris at the weekend and have now placed him under formal investigation for charges including “complicity in the administration of an online platform to enable illicit transaction” and “dissemination in an organised group of images of minors in child pornography”.
Other preliminary charges include failure to cooperate with French authorities when they requested information about Telegram, which has more than one billion users worldwide. Prosecutors said its partners in an EU agency had also met with little response on requests for information from Telegram.
French authorities first began looking into Telegram in February overseen by crimes against minors teams, prosecutors confirmed, bringing in cybercrime investigators last month.
Durov, born in Russia with French and Emirati citizenship, has been bailed but he has been banned from leaving France while the probe continues into Telegram, which is based in the UAE.
Following news of Durov’s arrest at the weekend, Telegram said it was “absurd to claim that a platform or its owner was responsible for abuse of that platform”. His lawyer told the press that Telegram complies with Europe’s rules for digital platforms.
