Arresting Telegram’s Pavel Durov Could Be a Smart Move Tech Bosses Care More About Themselves Than You | Chris Stokel-Walker

TThe shocking arrest of Telegram CEO Pavel Durov as he stepped off his private jet at Paris’ Bourget airport over the weekend is an unprecedented event: he is suspected of fraud, drug trafficking, organized crime, promoting terrorism and cyberbullying.

He may not be Elon Musk or Mark Zuckerberg, but he is the CEO of a tech platform with 900 million monthly users. He is also the first big name in the tech sector to potentially run afoul of the European Union’s increasingly strict digital laws and regulations.

Durov, an icon among free speech advocates, has been living in Dubai since refusing to provide the Kremlin with user data on his Facebook-like platform VKontakte (VK). Yet despite becoming persona non grata with the Kremlin, he has never managed to shake suspicions among Western elites that he is still colluding with the Russian state. The fact that the Russian government has called for his release, with former president Dmitry Medvedev telling the media that “for all our common enemies, he is now Russian,” will only fuel those suspicions.

Perhaps because he is what Medvedev calls a “man of the world who lives wonderfully without a motherland,” Durov has steadfastly refused requests from police and government agencies to hand over data on his users. In an interview with right-wing American commentator Tucker Carlson, Durov proclaimed that Telegram users value its “independence,” “privacy,” and “freedom.” But French authorities accused Durov of facilitating the distribution of child abuse images and providing a vital organizational tool for organized crime.

By turning the other cheek to government requests, Durov’s platform has become popular with those who want to avoid the scrutiny of other apps and digital services that regularly fulfill such requests. The fact that Telegram offers encrypted messaging helps. It’s no coincidence that the UK riots earlier this summer were organized through Telegram groups, with footage of the violence spread via the app and finding its way onto other platforms. The anti-racism campaign group Hope Not Hate has called Telegram the “app of choice” for racists.

It’s no surprise that Telegram is defending Durov. “Telegram complies with EU law, including the Digital Services Act – its moderation falls within industry standards,” the platform said in a statement. “It is absurd to claim that a platform or its owner is responsible for abuse of that platform.” But his arrest challenges that position.

What does this mean for other tech moguls? Those who imagine that figures like Meta’s Zuckerberg or even X’s owner Musk – who has made it his mission to irritate European authorities and ignore their demands to crack down on disinformation – will be put in cuffs any time soon, can wait. They are much bigger fish than Durov.

But the Russian’s arrest could be a sign that Europe’s historic inaction—at least relative to its belligerence—is about to change. Europe has had a long-standing antagonistic relationship with Big Tech, which insists its attempt to impose strict regulations designed to limit the harms of social media are a drag on innovation. Yet that hostility has been seen by Silicon Valley as little more than an annoyance: Europe has rarely put its money where its mouth is.

Durov’s arrest, however, is a sign that talks may be happening. A European legislative package, including the Digital Markets Act and the Digital Services Act, has given the EU the power to try to rein in the excesses of big tech. There have already been threats of sanctions and fines. And now that executives know what was previously unthinkable – that they may have to take personal responsibility for the actions of the companies they own – is on the agenda, their assessment of the risks involved may change. Zuckerberg presumably knows that, given his heightened public profile, he is unlikely to be caught in handcuffs. But Musk’s panicked posts on his own platform suggest he is less certain, a consequence of his poor relationship with European regulators.

Given the power that global platform executives wield, it’s no bad thing that they have a nagging fear in the back of their minds. If making an example of Durov is what it takes to make tech executives think twice before acting, then that’s certainly to be applauded.