Telegram Founder Speaks Out After Arrest, Announces Platform Changes

Pavel Durov, the CEO and founder of messaging giant Telegram, has spoken out for the first time following his arrest in Paris in late August. Durov broadcast a message on a public Telegram channel on September 5th. He said he was surprised that the French prosecutors had arrested him.

He said Telegram has an official European Union (EU) representative who handles regulatory requests and law enforcement inquiries. He added that the company was ready to leave jurisdictions that are hostile towards Telegram’s mission of free speech and expression.

Nonetheless, his statements were followed by an apparent compromise. On September 6th, Telegram announced that it would be cutting several features from its platform including media uploads from Telegram’s ‘Telegraph’ blog and disabling the ‘People Nearby’ geolocation feature.

Durov was released on bail on September and is now under judicial supervision after a court appearance. Laure Beccuau, the Paris prosecutor, issued a statement confirming that the Telegram CEO had been ordered to pay a bail sum of 5 million euros (approximately $5.5 million). Although released from custody, he is still required to report to the police twice a week. Although a bail release is a positive move, French media report that Durov is banned from leaving France and the charges he faces are serious.

After being arrested at Bourget airport near Paris in late August he was formally accused of being involved in running an online platform that facilitated illegal transactions carried out by an organized group, which could result in a prison sentence of up to 10 years.  He faces other charges related to criminal activities linked to his platform, including complicity in illegal transactions by organized gangs, laundering of crime proceeds, and failure to provide crucial information to authorities. Additionally, he faces charges related to enabling the distribution of illicit materials, including child exploitation content, drug trafficking, and financial fraud, while also being accused of non-cooperation with law enforcement.

With both the former Binance and FTX CEOs currently in prison, avoiding a prison term isn’t guaranteed for high-profile CEOs these days, and Durov’s announcements regarding the removal of features from Telegram could well be a strategic move to demonstrate his willingness to cooperate with authorities before any ultimate trial.

The Ton Society has launched a petition on Telegram urging French authorities to #FREEDUROV.

The Ton Society has released a “Free Pavel Durov and Protect Free Speech” online petition on Telegram, which to date has received over 7 million signatures. The petition characterises Durov’s arrest as “a blatant attack on the freedom of expression and the right to private life”. Notable signatories include Ethereum’s Vitalik Buterin and Elon Musk. Interestingly, an X post by Buterin on the topic of Durov’s arrest suggested that Telegram wasn’t entirely blameless. “I’ve criticized Telegram before for not being serious with encryption,” he said. “But given the info available so far: the charge seems to be just being unmoderated and not giving up people’s data – this looks very bad and worrying for the future of software and comms freedom in Europe.”

Telegram is an app with millions of users who value its privacy features. Secret chats on the Telegram platform are protected with end-to-end encryption, ensuring that only the sender and recipient can access the message content. The company does not store these chats on their servers or keep logs of the messages which means there is no record of who was involved in the conversation or when it occurred.  Commentators have suggested that Telegram’s reach, privacy, and user anonymity features have made it a hub for criminals where they can find targets and deploy tools to implement their illegal activity.

The TON coin price is down around 27% after a major sell-off following the arrest of Telegram CEO Pavel Durov in Paris. Source: Brave New Coin Market Cap Table.

The Toncoin (TON) price has dropped by 27% since Durov’s arrest. TON is a US$12.5 billion market cap token with ties to Telegram and is the native token of ‘The Open Network’ a high-performance, decentralized blockchain founded by Telegram in 2018. The blockchain is noted for its rapid transaction processing speeds. While Toncoin and Telegram are separate entities, they remain closely connected. The Telegram app has a built-in application TON blockchain and token. There are also incentives within the app that encourage users to spend TON tokens.