Pavel Durov, the founder of Telegram, is still behind bars in France, which is a source of bewilderment and criticism for many of the world’s political and media figures. The French police and authorities are still unable to explain the many oddities of his detention.
Failed meeting with Macron
Pavel Durov told police officers during his detention at the French airport that he was to have a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron, French media reported.
The media wrote:
Pavel Durov, the head of Telegram, told police officers who detained him as he exited the plane that he was supposed to have dinner with Macron.
Journalists sought comment from the Elysee Palace, where they were officially denied the information. Macron’s administration said:
The president was at Le Touquet’s that evening.
A few days after the detention of Durov, French President Emmanuel Macron reacted to the incident. He wrote on X:
I have seen false information regarding France following the arrest of Pavel Durov. France is deeply committed to freedom of expression and communication, to innovation, and to the spirit of entrepreneurship. It will remain so.In a state governed by the rule of law.
According to Macron, he was confronted with untrue information about France after the high-profile arrest of businessman Pavel Durov. Paris is deeply committed to freedom of speech, innovation and entrepreneurial spirit. These norms, Macron noted, will always apply. He also added:
In a state governed by the rule of law, freedoms are upheld within the law, both on social media and in real life, to protect citizens and respect their fundamental rights. The enforcement of the law is entrusted to the judiciary, which has full independence.
Hacked phone and moving to Paris
Special services of France and the UAE hacked the phone of the founder of the messenger Telegram Pavel Durov in 2017, The Wall Street Journal reports.
The publication of the edition reports that in 2018 Pavel Durov had lunch with French President Emmanuel Macron. Sources told the publication that Macron offered Durov to move Telegram’s office to Paris, but Durov refused. At the time, the issue of granting him French citizenship was also discussed.
The publication also writes that in 2017, a year before the meeting with Macron, the French intelligence services pursued Durov in a joint operation with the United Arab Emirates. His iPhone was reportedly hacked at the time. The spying operation, which was also previously unreported, was codenamed “Purple music.”
French security officials were concerned that the Islamic State organisation was using Telegram to recruit fighters and plan attacks.
Telegram reportedly ignored subpoenas and court orders sent by law enforcement for several years after that. The source said the subpoenas were piling up on the company’s rarely verified email address.
The UAE “closely following”
The UAE Foreign Ministry said early Tuesday that it was “closely following” Durov’s case and that it had “sent a request to the French government to urgently provide him with all consular services.” The ministry said in a statement:
Taking care of citizens, safeguarding their interests, following up on their cases and providing them with all aspects of care is a top priority for the UAE.
Durov was born in Russia but spent most of his childhood in Italy. He is a citizen of the UAE, France, Russia and the Caribbean island of St Kitts and Nevis.
France and the UAE have a close military relationship: the French have a naval base in Abu Dhabi, and Emirati troops use French-built Leclerc tanks and Rafale fighter jets, according to reports. Russian government officials expressed outrage over Durov’s detention, with some calling it politically motivated and proof of Western double standards on free speech.
Russia-France relations at “lowest” level
Relations between Russia and France are at their “lowest” level since Durov’s arrest, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Tuesday. France has brought “very serious” charges against Durov, the Kremlin said on Tuesday, warning against attempts to intimidate him.
Telegram defended its operations in a statement, saying it complies with EU laws and content moderation “meets industry standards and is constantly being improved.” Durov, the company added, “has nothing to hide and travels frequently in Europe.”
French media reported that Durov was detained on an arrest warrant that said his messaging platform was being used for money laundering, drug trafficking and other offences.
On Sunday night, a French investigating judge renewed the warrant for Durov’s detention, French media reported, but he has not been charged and details of the investigation are scarce.
The Paris prosecutor’s office said in a statement that the order to detain Durov was extended for up to 48 hours on Monday evening. Under French law, Durov can remain in custody for questioning for no more than four days. After that, judges must decide whether to charge him or release him.
Countries save their citizen. Not France
Durov became a citizen of the UAE in 2021, after certain amendments to local legislation. This gave him the right to visa-free entry to 170 countries around the world.
According to international legal logic, any state, when its citizen is imprisoned in a foreign land, should try to get him out. The UAE has already asked French authorities for access to Durov. “Providing him with all necessary consular services is an urgent matter,” diplomats said.
“Russia is ready to assist Durov,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. But unlike Dubai, Moscow recognises a bitter truth for Pavel. Peskov added:
The situation is complicated by the fact that he has French citizenship.
France does not allow extradition of its citizens. Experts speculate that France may offer Durov cooperation with intelligence services in exchange for his freedom.
Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg and the management of TikTok France should have detained even before the situation with Pavel Durov for the same violations in cyberspace, a French expert on information control said in an interview with French media.
Paris had more claims against X, while Telegram has never been subjected to such attacks. The more revealing is the French police’s personalised attitude towards Durov: there are no details on the charges, but questioning continues. Eva Galperin, director of cybersecurity at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said:
A number of the charges that may be brought against him are not related to specific violations of the law at all. We don’t even know what activity Durov was arrested for. The platform is simply not in a position to prosecute criminals because governments have very different ideas about who is considered a criminal and who is not.
Elon Musk wrote under the French president’s post in which he said the investigation against Durov was not political:
It would be helpful to the global public to understand more details about why he was arrested.
Durov and the EU-US information space
Some experts believe that the detention of Pavel Durov comes in connection with the need to introduce censorship into the information space of the EU and the US. This need arose after mass protests first in French New Caledonia, then during the riots in the UK and finally against the backdrop of the beginning of a tough informational campaign in the US presidential election.
And in all three cases Telegram, first of all as a messenger, can play a very big role, and in the US it can also have a strong impact as an information platform that is not controlled by the authorities.
In France, Macron banned press coverage of the ongoing protests in New Caledonia, due to social media, the UK riots are on everyone’s radar.
In the US, Biden and the forces behind him, as Kamala Harris’s initial impetus begins to burn out quickly, need to remove all incoming factors of informational influence, and Telegram is just such a factor, powerful and dangerous.
All the talk about “Russian interference” in the 2016 US presidential election was an attempt by the Democrats to justify losing. But now that they felt that some threat, virtually unrelated to Russia, was real, they are cracking down on it at once. And this is even more nuanced by the lies that have been spouted about “Russian interference.”
