Pavel Durov arrested, Telegram hanging in the balance

“Civil society has had a complicated relationship with Telegram over the years,” said Natalia Krapiva, a lawyer at the digital rights group Access Now. “We have defended Telegram against attempts by authoritarian regimes to block and force the platform to provide encryption keys, but we have also been raising alarms about the lack of human rights policies, reliable communication channels, and remedies for users.” Krapiva stressed that French authorities may try to force Durov to provide Telegram’s encryption keys to decrypt private messages, “something Russia has already tried to do in the past.”

The hashtag #FreePavel spread online, including through X CEO Elon Musk, who has repeatedly posted about Durov’s arrest.“Opinion: It’s 2030 in Europe and you’re being executed for liking a meme,” he wrote Saturday evening in response to a post about the Telegram CEO’s detention.“The need to protect free speech has never been more urgent,” Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Friday. Support Donald Trump for President of the United StatesWriting on X, he called Telegram “uncensored” and “encrypted.”

Although Telegram is often described as an encrypted messaging app, Messages are not end-to-end encrypted by defaultand executives previously told Wired that they view the platform as a social network. That’s thanks in large part to Channels, a one-to-many broadcast feature that allows an unlimited number of subscribers to view a post.

One of the most-watched posts on X was by right-wing former Fox News reporter Tucker Carlson, who mentioned the oft-repeated But the controversial story Durov left Russia because the government tried to take over his company. “But in the end, it wasn’t Putin who arrested him for allowing the public to exercise free speech. It was a Western country,” Carlson wrote The post has been read at least 5.7 million times so far. Carlson also included a link to an hour-long interview he conducted with Durov earlier this year, the first and only interview the Telegram CEO has given in recent years.

In Durov’s absence, Telegram’s future looks uncertain to some: “I’m shocked that everyone around Pavel feels the same way,” said Georgy Lobushkin, a former PR director at VK, a social network co-founded by Durov, who remains in regular contact with him. “No one was prepared for this situation.” Asked if he was worried about Telegram’s future and who would run the company in Durov’s absence, Lobushkin said: “(I’m) very worried.”

TF1Info was the first to report the news of Durov’s arrest in France, reporting that there was “no doubt” that Durov would remain in detention during the investigation. “Pavel Durov will end up in pretrial detention, that’s for sure,” an unnamed investigator told reporters.

“No one at Telegram was prepared for this situation,” said Anton Rozenberg, who worked with Durov from the early days of VK in 2007 and then worked for Telegram from 2016 to 2017. Rozenberg foresees Durov getting the best legal defense money can buy. “But without him, Telegram could have huge problems with management, all key decisions and even payments,” he added, because Durov is personally involved in running the company. Rozenberg sees no obvious replacement for Durov, who makes key decisions on nearly everything at Telegram — financing, growth strategy, product design, monetization and content moderation policy.

Elies Campo, who was in charge of development, business and partnerships at Telegram from 2015 to 2021, said that for now, things are expected to continue as normal. “It depends on how long this situation lasts, it’s like a government, right? There is this structure, there is self-motivation.” Campo added that the company has a small headcount (around 60 employees), so the infrastructure will not be affected.

Campo acknowledged that the challenge was whether Durov would need to be physically present to pay suppliers — a point Rosenberg also raised.

“As far as I know, Pavel paid the money,” Campo said. “So what happens when the time comes to pay the infrastructure provider or the connectivity provider — and he’s still arrested?”