Snowden à la Russe
Late in the evening of 24 August, French media reported that the founder and CEO of Telegram, Pavel Durov, had been detained by police at Le Bourget airport. The Russian millionaire, owner of the cryptocurrency Toncoin, and former creator of the social network VKontakte, had arrived in Paris from Azerbaijan accompanied by a bodyguard and cryptocurrency coach Ksenia Vavilova. Despite his French citizenship and the image of a "fighter against digital dictatorship" quickly being crafted by Durov's supporters, the Russian "Elon Musk" faces quite serious charges, against which neither millions in his bank account nor his purported invaluable contribution to the digitalisation of humanity may prove effective.
Complicity in drug trafficking, fraud, terrorism, and the distribution of child pornography—according to media estimates, the accumulation of these charges could result in Durov receiving up to 20 years of imprisonment. In reality, the refusal of the Telegram messenger's administration to cooperate with French intelligence services might have only been the pretext for the arrest of its founder. By and large, in terms of content moderation, Telegram is no different from Durov's previous creation, the VKontakte social network, which, like Telegram, has turned into an aggregator of pirated content (music, films, audiobooks, etc.), pornography, and shady operations by various criminal circles.
However, Durov's detention is already being portrayed as an attack on freedom of speech in Europe—such accusations are unsurprisingly being voiced en masse by representatives of the so-called Russian liberal opposition, as well as European left-wing journalists who (surprise, surprise) closely collaborate with the Russian opposition and the Russian "independent media" relocated to Europe.
To be fair, it is worth noting that back in March 2022, at the very start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Pavel Durov stated that he has Ukrainian roots and that the war in Ukraine is something he takes very personally. And prior to 2022, during the Euromaidan, Durov allegedly refused to provide the FSB of the Russian Federation with access to the accounts of Ukrainian VKontakte users who opposed the pro-Russian policies of Viktor Yanukovych. On the other hand, one can say anything—especially if you are a Russian businessman who is, one way or another, forced to cooperate with the authorities.
It is difficult to provide a definitive answer to the question of who Durov really is—a digital rebel-anarchist, an unofficial FSB agent, a cynical businessman doing what benefits his projects, or all of the above in equal measures. One can only analyse the history of his conflicts with the authorities and the statements of those who now find themselves on his side.
One of the main complaints against the founder of Telegram lies in the very principle of this messenger's construction based on reliable end-to-end encryption. Telegram offered its users a high level of confidentiality—this was the key to its success as a communication platform. However, to activate message encryption, users had to additionally create secret chats, a feature not widely known. Law enforcement agencies in Russia and Western countries were not thrilled from the outset about the emergence of such a closed network, which naturally began to be used as a platform for shadow business and criminal operations. Attempts to block Telegram in Russia led nowhere—possibly due to the primitive methods employed. This fact gave rise to the theory that Russian internet regulators are attempting to block Telegram only to create it a reputation as an "opposition-independent messenger," while they themselves use it for total surveillance of users worldwide.
The launch of the Telegram Open Network (TON) blockchain and the Gram cryptocurrency in 2018 brought the creators of Telegram into conflict with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which in 2019 managed to secure a temporary injunction against the Telegram Open Network, claiming that the new cryptocurrency was unregistered securities. In 2022, Telegram's administration managed to bypass SEC restrictions and release its new cryptocurrency, Toncoin. Incidentally, just a few hours after Durov's detention at the Paris airport, Toncoin dropped by 14%. If we assume that Durov (or his business partners) knew in advance about the arrest or its high probability, the very nature of cryptocurrency would suggest a highly profitable play on the falling prices. And if we assume that the owners of Telegram also know how Durov's arrest will end, in the future, they might once again significantly increase their crypto-capital by selling and buying Toncoin.
The role of Telegram in the protest movements of 2019-2020 is also far from being straightforward. On the one hand, Telegram became the main means of communication among protesters during mass actions in Belarus, Iran, and Hong Kong. On the other hand, there is plenty of evidence from Belarusian opposition members who have reported that during KGB detentions, they were shown printouts of Telegram chats that had long been deleted by the users themselves. It should be understood that a centralised platform with closed code and an opaque management system is not synonymous with freedom of speech, data protection, and liberal freedoms.
This is confirmed by the mass protests by "ordinary Russians" (including the "New People" movement) sanctioned by the authorities in front of French consulates in Moscow and St. Petersburg, demanding the release of Pavel Durov. This also includes statements by Russian Z-war correspondents, who have unanimously voiced support for the "opposition and anti-war" founder of Telegram. Even Russian military officials have officially protested the detention, emphasising the messenger's usefulness in "coordinating the actions of Russian military units in the special military operation zone." Finally, even the Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov commented, saying: "By detaining Durov, France has shown that Telegram is a reliable messenger in terms of information protection." So, while one can continue to discuss the reasons and consequences of Pavel Durov's arrest at length, it is worth remembering a simple principle: tell me who your friends are, and I will tell you who you are.