Telegram: Telegram co-founder and CEO Pavel Durov has been arrested in France. The case is of criminal activities on the Telegram app. Durov, who has dual citizenship of Russia and UAE, was detained at France’s Le Bourget airport on August 24 when he arrived from Azerbaijan on a private plane.
What are the allegations?
On July 8, France’s National Anti-Fraud Office launched an investigation into Telegram for alleged criminal activities such as drug trafficking, fraud, money laundering, distribution of child sexual abuse material, promoting criminal transactions and refusal to cooperate with law enforcement. Although Durov has not yet been charged in the case, Russia and the United Arab Emirates have requested diplomatic access to the 39-year-old billionaire Durov.
What Telegram said
Telegram said in a statement that it is absurd to claim that a platform or its owner is responsible for the misuse of that platform. It also said that the company complies with EU laws, including the Digital Services Act.
Why did the matter reach this point?
Launched in 2013, Telegram is a messaging app similar to WhatsApp where users can create or join channels with a large number of other users who share content on these groups. Apart from chatting and organizing people, users also rely on Telegram for news updates. According to a report by The New York Times, Telegram currently has over 900 million users in countries such as Russia, Ukraine, Brazil, Indonesia and India. Telegram’s lightweight approach to content monitoring has reportedly increased its popularity over the past few years. Although Telegram has actively removed violent content and content related to child sexual abuse, the platform has increasingly become a means for drug dealers, extremist groups and terrorist organizations to share harmful content. Law enforcement officials have also expressed disappointment over Telegram’s alleged lack of cooperation in removing harmful content and locating account holders. For example, according to a report, child safety organizations in the US, UK, and Canada have accused Telegram of ignoring their requests to take action against child sexual abuse content on the platform.Telegram’s own website states that: All Telegram chats and group chats are private between their participants. We do not process any requests related to them.Telegram has also established itself as a platform that prioritizes user privacy by encrypting chats and rolling out features like disappearing messages. However, many experts have repeatedly pointed out that end-to-end encryption is not enabled for every conversation by default.Telegram has been permanently or temporarily banned in more than 31 countries so far.
Will India ban Telegram?
The allegations arising from Durov’s arrest have also had an impact in other countries like India. According to a report, the Union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has approached the Union Home Ministry to investigate if there are any pending complaints against Telegram for similar violations. India has also witnessed security incidents and frauds taking place on Telegram.
In 2023, a bot on Telegram allegedly leaked details of corona vaccine beneficiaries stored on the government’s CoWIN data. Recently, the admin of a Telegram channel was convicted in a stock-price manipulation racket on the platform, which was unearthed by SEBI. There have been cases of child pornography and leakage of exam papers on this platform.
