Why arrest of Pavel Durov, Telegram founder, interests India

Pavel Durov, the founder of secure messaging app Telegram, was born in Russia, spent his youth in Italy and now has citizenship of the UAE and a French passport. He was once called the Mark Zuckerberg of Russia after he built a Facebook lookalike, which was frequently targeted by Moscow for allowing a voice to dissenting politics. Durov created a reputation for being a bit of a free-speech, technology-evangelist Robin Hood.  

The platform he created was seen as a bastion of lightly regulated monitored activity and used for everything from cryptocurrency transactions to dark web conspiracy theorists. It is seen as a secure and encrypted method to communicate safely, but experts point out that the security is not a default feature and that it needs users to turn it on. In other words, it is not as anonymous as it is made out to be.

On August 24, Pavel was arrested from an airport in France after landing in a private plane from Azerbaijan. He has not been charged with any specific crime, but French authorities have said that he has been detained in connection with a case opened into allegations of child pornography, money laundering, drug trafficking and other cybercrimes. French law allows a person to be detained without being charged for a specified period.

Telegram has said it abides by EU laws and its content moderation is “within industry standards and constantly improving.” Durov, the statement said, “has nothing to hide and travels frequently in Europe.” It also said that it was “absurd” to hold a platform or its owner responsible for the “content” on it.

French President Emmanual Macron said that the arrest was part of a judicial proceeding and France “remained deeply committed to freedom of expression”. Russian president Putin reacted angrily to the arrest of Pavel with the Russian government calling it politically motivated and proof of the West’s “double standards on free speech”.

The arrest has set off a wave of angry reactions, especially from free speech advocates, including people like Elon Musk who runs X. They allege that his arrest is more about governments which want to surveille all communication than about cybercrime. However, Telegram has been on the radar of authorities for allegations of misuse, including the spread of extremist ideologies, arms sales, drug deals and organized crime. Telegram has also, on several occasions, declined to share information with law enforcement.

What makes India an interested party

For India, Pavel’s arrest is of special interest. India has the second-highest number of users on Telegram. It is also the vehicle for some of the biggest scams in the technology age: loans, exam paper leaks, child pornography rackets.  

Exam paper leaks have been in the news for the last several months. As late as June, the prestigious UGC National Eligibility Test to qualify for teaching jobs had to be cancelled because the exam paper was leaked. Just a month before that, another national-level exam was compromised in the same manner. The Indian government, via the education ministry, specifically named Telegram. Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said to the press that “all these activities take place on Telegram these days” and asked for a high-level probe into the platform.

Financial crime and loan scams are also rife on Telegram. Fake investment advisories are operating without much check. People are asked to invest and their money is then funneled out. Even bigger are loan scams, where loans are offered without much scrutiny to lure victims. They are asked to share their financial credentials to ‘activate’ the disbursal of the loan. These credentials are then used to drain out the victim’s bank account.

Law enforcement authorities say that Telegram has been very sluggish to cooperate with investigations. Media reports suggest that less than 20 per cent of requests are responded to.

Should Pavel be prosecuted for the allegations that Telegram is facing, it could very well set up a template for all governments looking to regulate the profligacy of digital and social media platforms. The Indian government has recently had to shelve a proposed law on digital and satellite broadcasting after strong protests that it was infringing on privacy and making users of social media platforms as liable for their content as the platforms themselves. There are similar laws or proposals in other countries as well, which privacy and free speech advocates oppose. If Pavel is indicted, it will have a direct impact on the way digital and social media platforms and their users interact.