“Civil society has had a complicated relationship with Telegram for many years,” says Natalia Capriva, a lawyer at the digital rights group Access Now. “We have defended Telegram against attempts by authoritarian regimes to block it and force it to hand over encryption keys, but we have also sounded the alarm about Telegram’s lack of a human rights policy, reliable means of communication, and remedies for its users.” Capriva stresses that French authorities could force Durov to hand over Telegram’s encryption keys to decrypt private messages. “Russia has already tried to do this in the past.”
The hashtag #FreePavel has also been circulating online through X CEO Elon Musk, who has posted multiple times about Durov’s arrest. “Perspective: Europe in 2030, you will be executed for liking a meme,” Musk wrote on Saturday night in response to a post about the Telegram CEO’s arrest. “The need to protect free speech has never been more urgent,” Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who endorsed Donald Trump for the U.S. presidential election on Friday, wrote on X, calling Telegram “uncensored” and “encrypted.”
While Telegram is often described as an encrypted messaging app, messages aren’t end-to-end encrypted by default, and executives have previously told WIRED that they view the platform as a social network, primarily because of its channels, a one-to-many broadcasting feature that allows unlimited subscribers to view posts.
One of the most popular posts on X was by right-wing former Fox News journalist Tucker Carlson, who addressed the oft-told but controversial story that Durov left Russia because the government was trying to take over his company. “But at the end of the day, it wasn’t Putin who arrested him for allowing his people freedom of speech. It was the West who arrested him,” Carlson wrote in a post, which has been viewed at least 5.7 million times so far. Carlson also linked to an hour-long interview he conducted with Durov earlier this year, one of the first and only interviews the Telegram CEO has conducted in recent years.
Some say Durov’s absence leaves Telegram’s future uncertain. “I’m shocked, and so are all those close to Pavel,” says Georgy Lobushkin, former communications director at VK, the social network Durov co-founded, who still keeps in regular contact with Durov. “No one was prepared for this situation.” Asked if he was worried about Telegram’s future and who could run the company in Durov’s absence, Lobushkin said, “I’m very worried.”
TF1Info, which first broke the news of Durov’s arrest in France, said there was “no doubt” that Durov would remain in custody during the investigation. “Pavel Durov will definitely be in pre-trial detention,” one of the investigators, speaking on condition of anonymity, told reporters.
“Nobody at Telegram was prepared for such a scenario,” said Anton Rosenberg, who worked with Durov from the early days of VK in 2007 and at Telegram from 2016 to 2017. Rosenberg expected Durov to get the best legal defense money could buy. “But without him, the messenger could have big problems with management, all the big decisions, even payments,” he added, noting Durov’s personal involvement in running the company. Rosenberg didn’t see anyone who could replace Durov, who makes the big decisions on almost everything at Telegram, including funding, development strategy, product design, monetization, and content moderation policies.
For now, we can expect everything to continue as usual, said Eliezer Campo, who led Telegram’s growth, business, and partnerships from 2015 to 2021. “It depends on how long this lasts, but it’s almost like a government, right? There’s a structure and there’s a self-motivated drive,” Campo said, adding that the company has a small employee base of around 60 people, so its infrastructure won’t be affected.
Campo acknowledged that the issue was whether Durov needed to be physically present to make payments to providers, a point Rosenberg also raised.
“As far as I know, it was Pavel who made the payment,” Campo said. “What’s going to happen when the infrastructure provider or the connectivity provider needs to be paid, because he’s still under arrest?”
