Everything About the Arrest of the Telegram CEO That is Known So Far

By
Chew Ming Hui
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While you’re using Telegram now, its CEO is being held up in France — by “held up”, we mean that the Telegram CEO, Pavel Durov, was arrested.

Huh? Arrested for what? 

Well, if you weren’t aware of the arrest and the reasons surrounding it, fret not — no one really knows much about the arrest, but here’s everything we know about it so far.

Who the Telegram CEO is

There are just too many CEO names to remember in this day and age — before this, you probably didn’t really care who the Telegram CEO was. So, let’s break down who exactly he is, shall we?

Pavel Durov is the Russian-born founder of Telegram, the messaging app that many of us know and love.

Image: Wikipedia

On that note, if you’re not subscribed to the Goody Feed Telegram channel, you waiting for what sia? Waiting for durian to drop ah? 

The 39-year-old billionaire launched Telegram in 2013 after he came up with the idea of an encrypted messaging platform when armed police officers allegedly went to his Russian home.

Later on in 2014, Durov left Russia after refusing to comply with the Kremlin’s demands to shut down opposition groups on the Vkontakte platform, which is a Russian social media platform founded by Durov when he was merely 22 years old.

Wah… What were you doing at 22 years old? Scrolling memes on Facebook? 

In the same year, Durov also left Vkontakte, as he had a dispute with the platform’s Kremlin-linked owners — this gave him the time to focus on Telegram, making it the messaging app that it is today.

And now, most of us worldwide are using Telegram, be it for getting the latest news and food lobangs, or for keeping in contact with our friends and family — there are nearly 1 billion users on Telegram currently.

Truly, the butterfly effect.

Why the Telegram CEO was Arrested

We then come to the million-dollar question — why was the Telegram CEO arrested?

On Saturday (24 August), Durov was arrested upon his arrival at Le Bourget airport in France, as part of investigations into crimes related to child pornography, drug trafficking and fraudulent transactions on the Telegram platform. The investigations involved a probe launched by France’s cybercrime unit earlier in July into an unnamed person.

However, the investigation into Durov in particular is over his suspected complicity with various crimes, including running an online platform that allows illicit transactions, child pornography, drug trafficking and fraud.

All we can say is, we hope all you readers are not on that side of Telegram.

The investigation into Durov also involves the refusal to communicate information to authorities, money laundering, and providing cryptographic services to criminals.

You see, part of why day-to-day users prefer using Telegram over other messaging apps is because of the encryption of messages provided by Telegram. However, the encryption is both a blessing and a curse — criminals have also benefitted from Telegram’s encryption, given that all their messages and whatever illegal activities they’re engaged in are also encrypted.

And it seems to be the case that that’s why Durov was arrested — his messaging platform which most of us know and love has allegedly allowed all sorts of illicit activities to take place.

That’s a lot to take in as a reader, and a lot to look into as a prosecutor — while Durov can be held until Wednesday, that still leaves less than a week for the French authorities to investigate Durov thoroughly.

Many have also speculated that Durov’s arrest was politically motivated — after all, it appears that the rationale behind the arrest was to crack down on the free speech which Telegram provides. However, French President Emmanuel Macron has shared that there was no political motive behind the arrest and that France remains deeply committed to lawful free speech.

Well, we hope we can take his word for it.

What UAE, Russia, and Telegram Have Said About the Arrest

So, what have other nations, especially those Durov is connected to, said about Durov’s arrest?

Let’s start off with the United Arab Emirates (UAE), where Durov is a citizen — for context, the Telegram CEO has dual French and United Arab Emirates citizenship (even though he is Russian-born).

Macam collecting citizenship like it’s Pop Mart. Next stop: Singapore citizenship.

The UAE foreign ministry said in a statement that it had submitted a request to France to provide the 39-year-old billionaire, who has an estimated net worth of US$15.5 billion, with “all the necessary consular services in an urgent manner”.

Whether or not France is going do so is a whole other issue lah. 

But what about Russia? While we broadly know why Durov was arrested, the Kremlin said that it had yet to see any official French accusations against Durov.

“We do not yet know what exactly Durov is accused of,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a news briefing.

The Russian embassy in Paris also shared on X that French authorities had declined to cooperate with its requests for consular access. However, the embassy is in contact with Durov’s lawyer.

So, what we know so far from the UAE’s and Russia’s responses is that we know nothing lah. But what about Telegram? Perhaps there’s something the company is privy to?

Well, tough luck — aside from some classic PR statements, Telegram didn’t reveal any details surrounding the arrest either.

“It is absurd to claim that a platform or its owner are responsible for abuse of that platform,” Telegram stated.

For now, I guess we’re all clueless as to what exactly is going to happen to the Telegram CEO. We can only wait and see.

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Chew Ming Hui
Email: [email protected]