Inside the Bust That Took Down Pavel Durov—and Upended Telegram

5 days ago 44

As Maillochon and other French journalists went on to report, prosecutors had been secretly investigating Durov for months over his and Telegram’s alleged failure to block illegal activity—which authorities claim included fraud, drug trafficking, child sexual abuse material (CSAM), organized crime, and terrorism—on the platform. The French Gendarmerie alone had counted 2,460 cases between 2013 and 2024 in which legal requests made to Telegram had gone unanswered, according to the outlet Libération. Maylis de Roeck, a spokesperson for the prosecutor’s office, told WIRED that when her team realized just how many investigations across different departments were being stymied by Telegram’s lack of response, they decided to issue an arrest warrant. As they saw it, Durov’s silence amounted to complicity.

In the immediate aftermath of the arrest, no one from Telegram commented publicly. One of Durov’s close associates, George Lobushkin—the former head of PR at VKontakte—told WIRED: “I am in shock, and everyone close to Pavel feels the same. Nobody was prepared for this situation.” Lobushkin added that he worried “a lot” about Telegram’s future if Durov remained in custody.

In the US, one of the first to react to the arrest was Tucker Carlson, the right-wing TV host. In a post on X, Carlson called Durov “a living warning to any platform owner who refuses to censor the truth at the behest of governments and intel agencies.” Elon Musk reposted a clip from Carlson’s interview and captioned it “#FreePavel.” Even Edward Snowden, a stern critic of Telegram’s security claims, expressed alarm. “I am surprised and deeply saddened that Macron has descended to the level of taking hostages as a means for gaining access to private communications,” he wrote on X. Macron, for his part, issued a statement that France was “deeply committed to freedom of expression,” adding of the arrest: “It is in no way a political decision. It is up to the judges to rule on the matter.”

On the Sunday evening after Durov’s arrest, his custody was extended to the 96-hour...

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