Pavel Durov was charged with a series of crimes in France on Wednesday tied to users' activities on the Telegram app he founded, a rare instance of a top technology executive being held personally responsible for what occurs on an online platform. Durov, who was detained Saturday, was released Wednesday after putting up about $5.5 million, the New York Times reports. He must check in at a police station twice a week, the Paris prosecutor said, and is prohibited from leaving the country. Conviction on all charges could bring the billionaire a sentence of up to 10 years in prison, she said.
The charges being investigated included complicity in managing an online platform to enable illegal transactions; complicity in crimes such as enabling the distribution of child sexual abuse material, drug trafficking and fraud; and refusal to cooperate with law enforcement. Telegram has been a part of criminal cases in France involving child sexual abuse, drug trafficking, and online hate crimes, said Laure Beccuau, the prosecutor. But requests for cooperation from prosecutors have resulted in a "near-total absence" of replies from Telegram, she said—in other European countries as well as France.
Durov's arrest has become a free speech issue, and French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday denied that it's an example of government censorship. Telegram issued a statement saying that it follows EU laws, per Axios, and that its content moderation—which is effectively nonexistent—is "within industry standards." Durov was born in Russia, and the Russian government has been critical of his arrest. (More Pavel Durov stories.)
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