Telegram CEO indicted, placed under supervised release amid complicity allegations

Telegram CEO Pavel Durov was formally indicted by a French judge Wednesday, facing charges he was complicit in the criminal activity taking place on the messaging app, the Paris prosecutor’s office said in a statement to The Hill.

He was released from custody after posting €5 million for bail.

Durov is accused of “complicity” in the distribution of child pornography, illicit transactions, money laundering and drug trafficking allegedly taking place on Telegram, according to a translated version of the Paris prosecutor’s office statement.

When law enforcement requested information or documents related to the illicit activities, Durov allegedly refused to meet their requests, per prosecutors.

Durov faces a total of six charges and was placed under judicial supervision, prosecutors said.

He is prohibited from leaving France and must check in at a police station twice a week.

The formal indictment came hours after Durov, a dual citizen of France and Russia, was freed from policy custody following days of questioning over the allegations. Judges had until Wednesday morning to either charge or release him after he was taken into custody Saturday night at the Paris-Le Bourget Airport.

The charges are part of a judicial investigation opened last month into an unnamed individual suspected of complicity in the criminal activity allegedly taking place on the platform.

Prosecutors said Telegram, which was founded by Durov and his brother Nikolai in 2013, appeared in multiple files centered on pedophilia and trafficking crimes and online hate.

Telegram’s “almost total absence” of a response to legal orders was alerted to the Paris public prosecutor’s cybercrime division, prompting them to open a criminal liability investigation, according to a translation of Paris prosecutors.

Prosecutors said a preliminary investigation began in February and a judicial investigation was opened July 8.

Telegram did not immediately respond to The Hill’s request for comment.

In a statement following his arrest earlier this week, the platform said it abides by the European Union’s laws and its moderation is “within industry standards and constantly improving.”

“It is absurd to claim that a platform or its owner are responsible for abuse of that platform,” Telegram said. “Almost a billion users globally use Telegram as means of communication and as a source of vital information. We’re awaiting a prompt resolution of this situation. Telegram is with you all.”

His arrest was quickly decried in Russia, while some quickly tried to link the arrest to concerns over free speech and the privacy of users’ content. 

Telegram has been long scrutinized by Western governments, which claim a lack of content moderation leads to the potential proliferation of criminal activity on the platform. It offers users the option to send messages with end-to-end encryption, along with large group chats with as many as 200,000 users.