Why are Telegram and its founder Pavel Durov in trouble?

Pavel Durov, founder and CEO of the popular messaging app Telegram, was arrested in Paris over the weekend. He is accused of using his platform for illegal activities such as drug trafficking and the distribution of child sexual abuse images.

Durov, 39, who was born in Russia, was arrested at Paris-Le Bourget airport in France on Saturday. His detention is linked to a judicial investigation launched last month into 12 alleged crimes related to his popular messaging app.

Although Durov was born in Russia, he spent much of his childhood in Italy and is a citizen of the United Arab Emirates, France, Russia and the Caribbean island nation of St. Kitts and Nevis.

In his first public statement on the arrest, French President Emmanuel Macron made it clear on Monday that this was not a political maneuver but part of an independent investigation.

In a social media post, Macron said that France was “deeply committed” to freedom of expression, but that these freedoms would be safeguarded both on social media and in real life within a legal framework to protect citizens and respect their fundamental rights.

Why is Telegram vulnerable to abuse?

Telegram is a messaging app that supports one-on-one conversations, group chats, and channels for sending messages to subscribers. Unlike competitors like Meta's WhatsApp, which limits group chats to 1,024 participants, Telegram allows up to 200,000 people in a single group. This large capacity raises concerns about the rapid spread of misinformation.

While Telegram offers encryption for communications, it is not enabled by default. Users must manually enable chat encryption and this feature does not apply to group chats. In contrast, competing apps like Signal and Facebook Messenger offer end-to-end encryption by default.

Telegram was founded in 2013 by Pavel Durov and his brother Nikolai. Pavel provides financial and ideological support, while Nikolai provides the technological contribution, the company said.

According to a recent analysis by Kaspersky, a significant increase in cybercrime was recorded on Telegram: from May to June 2024, a 53 percent increase in illegal posts was observed compared to the same period last year.

Alexey Bannikov, analyst at Kaspersky Digital Footprint Intelligence, cited the reasons for this growth as follows: “Telegram is marketed as the most secure and independent messenger that does not collect user data and gives threat actors a sense of security and impunity. In addition, it is relatively easy to find or create a community on Telegram, which, combined with other factors, allows various channels, including those of cybercriminals, to quickly build an audience.”

Western governments often criticize Telegram for its inadequate content moderation, which experts say poses a risk that the platform will be misused for money laundering, drug trafficking and the distribution of material related to the sexual exploitation of minors.

In 2022, Germany imposed fines totaling €5.12 million on Telegram's operators for non-compliance with German regulations. The Federal Office of Justice stressed that Telegram had neither set up a lawful system for reporting illegal content nor designated a German body to handle official notifications.

In addition, Brazil temporarily blocked Telegram last year because the company failed to provide data on neo-Nazi activities in connection with the police investigation into the November school shootings.

A statement posted on the platform after Durov's arrest said the company complies with EU laws and its moderation “meets industry standards and is constantly improving.”

“It is absurd to claim that a platform or its owner is responsible for the misuse of that platform,” Telegram's post said, adding that the company is waiting for the situation to be resolved soon.

Will Telegram become India’s new dark web?

Telegram is also under scrutiny in India due to its role as a hub for various criminal activities. The platform has increasingly become an epicenter for illegal activities, from the distribution of leaked exam papers and child pornography to stock price manipulation and extortion, leading to comparisons with the dark web.

An undercover investigation by Decode uncovered a thriving CSAM (child sex abuse material) trade on Telegram, with sellers offering thousands of videos and “child rape combo packs.” The platform served as a hotspot for the spread of CSAM, with content being sold for as little as Rs 40.

Decode also found several channels and groups on Telegram sharing links to porn videos with the name of the victim in the RG Kar Medical Hospital rape and murder case.

A week after the gruesome incident, a Telegram channel appeared under the victim's name. The administrator posted several links and claimed to share “leaked” photos and videos of the victim. The group has over 25,000 subscribers.

The platform's privacy features have also led to the proliferation of Telegram channels that support illegal sports betting. Although gambling is banned in India, these activities continue to exist as the platform offers end-to-end encryption and self-destructing message features.

Speaking to Decode, police officials stressed that user registration on Telegram can be done using virtual or temporary numbers without further verification or KYC of the mobile number. Moreover, a single account can be used on multiple devices without any restriction, which reduces the risk of being tracked by the authorities.

The platform’s loopholes were not only exploited to facilitate illegal activities, resulting in significant repercussions across the country.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) recently uncovered a stock price manipulation scheme carried out through Telegram. The administrator of a Telegram group was accused of accepting a commission of Rs 20 lakh from people associated with a listed steel sheet manufacturer.

According to reports, the leaks of UGC-NET exam papers were also facilitated through Telegram. Speaking on the issue, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said, “All these activities were taking place through Telegram these days. It is challenging to trace the complex nature of Telegram without a top-level investigation.”

Complaints had also surfaced that NEET-UG candidates had received copies of the medical entrance exam questions via telegram a day before the test, sparking one of the country's biggest exam controversies. The paper leak had led to widespread protests, a federal investigation and ultimately an intervention by the Supreme Court.