Pavel Durov’s arrest leaves Telegram hanging

“Civil society has had a complicated relationship with Telegram for years,” said Natalia Kapriva, a lawyer at the digital rights group Access Now. “We have defended Telegram against attempts by authoritarian regimes to block and force the platform to hand over encryption keys, but we have also raised the alarm about Telegram’s lack of human rights policies, trusted media, and redress for users.” Kapriva noted that French authorities could try to force Durov to hand over Telegram’s encryption keys to decrypt private messages, “something Russia has tried to do in the past.”

The hashtag #FreePavel has been circulating online, including by X CEO Elon Musk, who has posted multiple times about Durov’s arrest. “Perspective: It’s 2030 in Europe and you’re being executed for liking a meme,” he wrote Saturday night in response to a post about the Telegram CEO’s arrest. “The need to protect free speech has never been more urgent,” said Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who on Friday support Donald Trump for president of the United Stateswriting on X, in which he called Telegram “uncensored” and “encrypted”.

While Telegram is often described as an encrypted messaging app, Messages are not end-to-end encrypted by defaultand senior executives have previously told WIRED that they view the platform as a social network. This is largely due to Channels—a one-to-many broadcasting feature that allows unlimited subscribers to view posts.

One of the most popular posts on X was by former right-wing Fox News journalist Tucker Carlson, who alluded to the oft-repeated but the story is controversial that Durov left Russia because the government tried to take over his company. “But in the end, it was not Putin who arrested him for allowing the public to exercise their right to freedom of speech. It was a Western country,” Carlson wrote in a post that has been viewed at least 5.7 million times to date. Carlson also linked to an hour-long interview he conducted with Durov earlier this year, one of the first and only interviews the Telegram CEO has done in recent years.

With Durov absent, Telegram’s future looks uncertain to some: “I was shocked, and so were everyone close to Pavel,” said Georgy Lobushkin, a former PR director at VK, a social network Durov co-founded, who is still in regular contact with Durov. “Nobody was prepared for this situation.” Asked if he was worried about Telegram’s future and who might run the company in Durov’s absence, Lobushkin replied: “[I] worry a lot.”

TF1Info, which first reported Durov’s arrest in France, said there was “no doubt” that Durov would remain in custody while the investigation continued. “Pavel Durov will definitely be detained before trial,” an unnamed investigator told reporters.

“Nobody at Telegram was prepared for such a scenario,” said Anton Rozenberg, who worked with Durov from the early days of VK in 2007 before joining Telegram from 2016 to 2017. Rozenberg foresees Durov getting the best legal protection money can buy. “But without him, the messenger could have huge problems with management, all the key decisions, and even payments,” he added, given Durov’s personal involvement in running the company. Rozenberg sees no clear replacement for Durov, who makes key decisions on almost everything at Telegram—finances, development strategy, product design, monetization, and content moderation policy.

For now, things can be expected to continue as normal, said Elies Campo, who led Telegram’s growth, business, and partnerships from 2015 to 2021. “Depending on how long this situation lasts, it’s like a government, right? There’s this structure, there’s this internal motivation.” Campo added that the company’s staff is small enough — about 60 employees — that the infrastructure won’t be affected.

Campo acknowledged that the challenge lies in whether Durov needs to be physically present to pay suppliers — something Rozenberg also raised.

“As far as I know, Pavel made the payments,” Campo said. “So what happens when there are payments to infrastructure providers or connectivity providers—and he’s still under arrest?”