Pavel Durov’s journey has all the trimmings of the fabled underdog-turned-billionaire story.
The 39-year-old entrepreneur established two tech platforms: One has change into Russia’s reply to Fb, whereas the opposite grew to become a competitor to WhatsApp. No surprise he’s dubbed the Mark Zuckerberg of Russia.
His web price is estimated to be roughly $15.5 billion, in accordance with Forbes. The messaging app he based, Telegram, is claimed to be price over $30 billion and is mulling a public itemizing.
However Durov’s legacy as a tech champion is now in query. On Saturday, he was arrested in Paris in reference to an investigation into Telegram’s alleged use as a platform for legal exercise.
There’s little the world is aware of about Durov past glimpses of his life on social media, the place he’s wearing largely black apparel and pictured in opposition to scenic landscapes. Nonetheless, when Durov makes a uncommon media look, it typically grabs curiosity. For example, he spoke to far-right discuss present host Tucker Carlson about his views on social media platforms in April, and stated in July that he had fathered over 100 kids via sperm donation.
His detention by French authorities has sparked reactions from the likes of Elon Musk and set off a broader dialog on matters the tech world is grappling with, similar to free speech and content material moderation.
From the Soviet Union to Europe and past
Durov was born in Russia, the place he and his household lived till he was 4. They then moved to Italy, the place Durov needed to adapt to a special language and tradition. In an interview, he informed Carlson that his lecturers informed him he was doomed to fail, which constructed his aggressive spirit and led him to excel as a pupil.
Durov and his household ultimately returned to Russia following the collapse of the Soviet Union, the place he accomplished his training and based VKontakte (now referred to as “VK”), a Fb-like platform, in 2006. It proved a large success and shortly grew to become the nation’s largest social networking web site.
Finally, nonetheless, the Kremlin started meddling with the corporate’s administration, demanding extra management of the platform and inflicting Durov to go away VK and Russia in 2014.
A yr earlier than he fled, Durov, alongside along with his brother, Nikolai, arrange Telegram, making it an uncensored and easy-to-access utility for all.
After years of transferring round Europe and Asia, at present, the messaging platform—and Durov himself—are each based mostly in Dubai. He additionally holds citizenship within the UAE, France, and the Caribbean nation of St. Kitts and Nevis.
Telegram has earned a status, which might be good or dangerous, relying on who you ask. With a comparatively slim group of fifty or so full-time workers, the app has proved to be a essential communication device through the Russia-Ukraine battle. It presents options that its rivals don’t; for example, its teams can accommodate as much as 200,000 folks versus WhatsApp’s 1,000 cap. It additionally gives encryption, permits using cryptocurrency, and presents premium subscriptions.
Chesnot/Getty Pictures
However some corners of Telegram have come below hearth for allegedly spawning legal actions starting from little one pornography to terrorism to misinformation. The platform has gone comparatively mild on content material moderation, which is believed to be the rationale why illicit content material is extra extensively obtainable on Telegram.
“Due to the massive slice of exercise on #Telegram that’s not & has by no means been end-to-end encrypted, Pavel’s detention is clearly alarming many Telegram customers left questioning concerning the privateness of what they’ve stated prior to now & who may have the ability to entry it,” John Scott-Railton, a senior researcher on the Citizen Lab of College of Toronto, wrote in a submit on X.
International locations have been flagging these threats extra just lately: On Tuesday, South Korea referred to as for an investigation into sexually express deepfake photos and movies of girls circulated over Telegram chats. Brazil quickly banned Telegram for declining to share details about neo-Nazi teams with the nation’s police authorities final yr. Unesco highlighted in an investigation in 2022 that about half of Holocaust-related posts on Telegram both denied or distorted the info.
Durov informed the Monetary Instances earlier this yr that Telegram would up its moderation efforts utilizing AI however didn’t intend to police folks “until they cross pink traces.” Following its chief’s arrest, Telegram stated its moderation is “inside business requirements and always enhancing.”
What does Durov’s arrest imply for social media firms?
Telegram has largely managed to discipline accusations of facilitating criminality on its platform. By means of all of it, Durov has maintained that he goals to guard free speech on the messaging platform.
“Privateness, in the end, is extra vital than our concern of dangerous issues taking place, like terrorism,” he posted in 2015, in accordance with the New York Instances.
Meta has been caught in a tussle of its personal for years relating to free speech, censorship, and content material moderation. Elon Musk, a self-proclaimed “free speech absolutist,” whose platform, X, has been below EU scrutiny relating to its content material moderation, swooped in to help Durov following his arrest.
#FreePavel
pic.twitter.com/B7AcJWswMs— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 25, 2024
It’s a difficult stability, however arresting the CEOs of tech platforms might not be one of the best answer, Kate Ruane, director of the Free Expression Challenge on the Washington, D.C.-based Middle for Democracy & Know-how, informed the Washington Submit.
“Arresting platform executives due to their alleged failures to sufficiently average content material, even content material as disturbing and dangerous as content material that harms kids, begins us down a harmful highway that threatens free expression and provides an excessive amount of energy to the federal government to suppress speech,” she stated.
Telegram is nearing 1 billion customers worldwide. Though it’s nonetheless unclear if Durov’s arrest might change how the app operates, it actually will increase the stakes round the way it moderates the content material shared over its platform by freewheeling dangerous actors.
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