Pavel Durov Arrest Related to Telegram's Systemic Failure to Moderate 'Child Sex Crimes.

Arrest of a Website's Founder in France Renews an Ongoing Debate on Free Speech in Social Media. 

 

French authorities on Monday said they have arrested Telegram founder and CEO Pavel Durov for failing to moderate illegal child abuse activity on the popular messaging app, reigniting the free-speech-in-social-media debate afresh and what tech companies should do to limit harmful content.

Jean-Michel Bernigaud, secretary general of a French police group on the defense of minors, with a focus on preventing violence, said in a LinkedIn post-Monday that Durov's arrest is related to the app's inability to deal with offensive content against minors.

"At the heart of the case is the absence of moderation and cooperation on the part of the platform," he said, "since concerns the fight against child sex crimes."

The Russian-born billionaire, who is based in Dubai, was detained over the weekend at Bourget outside Paris as he landed from Azerbaijan in his private jet, French TV channel TF1 said Saturday night. His company says he has dual United Arab Emirates and French citizenship.

"France is more than ever attached to freedom of expression and communication, to innovation and to the spirit of enterprise," Mr Macron said in a post on X. "It will remain so."

Telegram did not immediately return a request for comment.

One of the most used messaging applications worldwide is Telegram, hosting more than 950 million users. According to the French newspaper Le Monde, the French authorities are investigating child pornography content, cyberbullying, and organized crime on this network.

Of late, one of the many social media and messaging applications facing complaints over insufficient moderation or failing to act against CSA content, fake news, disinformation, hate speech, and extremist groups/ideologies that promote violence is Telegram.

Rights and monitoring groups have come out to accuse Facebook owner Meta of contributing to real-world violence against the Rohingya community in Myanmar by failing to act against the spread of fake news and hate speech on its platforms.

On the other hand, according to a UNESCO study in 2022, nearly half of Holocaust-related content shared publicly on Telegram contained denial or distortion—higher than on Twitter, TikTok, or Facebook.

His high-profile arrest drew condemnation from other influential figures in tech.

Elon Musk, the owner of X, compared it to "being executed for liking a meme." Chris Pavlovski, CEO of Rumble Video, said France had threatened his online video platform and had crossed "a red line" by taking action against Duroc "reportedly for not censoring speech.".