08/30/2024

Telegram Faces a Reckoning in Europe

Other founders should beware

Among the leaders of the world’s biggest social media sites, Telegram founder Pavel Durov has always been an outsider. Unlike Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, he has never appeared on Capitol Hill to apologize for past mistakes. Unlike TikTok’s Shou Zi Chew, he’s never signed up for a five-hour grilling by Congress about whether his app is spying on Americans. And unlike X’s Elon Musk, he’s never taken part in an awkward photo opps where he says how much new regulation is “aligned with my thinking.”

Instead, Durov has spent years cultivating Telegram’s image as a proudly anti-authority platform. In practice, that has meant ignoring various governments’ requests to either take down content or hand over the identities of Telegram users suspected of serious crimes. "To this day, we have disclosed 0 bytes of user data to third parties, including governments," the company still says on its website.

Now, the 39-year-old is facing the consequences of that strategy. On Wednesday evening a Paris prosecutor announced Durov had been indicted on charges including complicity in enabling a range of crimes as well as refusal to communicate information or documents with French authorities.

Please select this link to read the complete article from WIRED.