• French authorities have detailed the charges being brought against Telegram CEO, Pavel Durov.
• He was arrested at the weekend over failures to properly police and regulate his messaging platform.
• The charges include the distribution of CSAM (child pornography) and money laundering.

At the weekend Telegram CEO, Pavel Durov, was arrested by authorities at Bourget Airport in France.

He was arrested over claims that he failed to properly police and regulate his messaging platform, which provides secure and encrypted chats for users, which is helpful, but also means all forms of content are allowed to be shared on it.

“Several sources, who appear to value their anonymity, told news outlets including TF1 and BFM TV that Durov was arrested as part of an investigation into Telegram’s lack of moderation,” we reported earlier this week.

Now the full extent of the allegations being made against the Telegram CEO are known, as French authorities have detailed the 12 charges that are being brought against Durov.

If true, the charges are quite damning, with the Telegram CEO said to have distributed CSAM (child pornography) content among other claims.

The 12 charges outlined by the Prosecutor of the Republic, Laure Beccuau, are as follows:

• “Complicity – web-mastering an online platform in order to enable an illegal transaction in organized group,
• Refusal to communicate, at the request of competent authorities, information
  or documents necessary for carrying out and operating interceptions allowed
  by law,
• Complicity – possessing pornographic images of minors,
• Complicity – distributing, offering or making available pornographic images of
  minors, in organized group,
• Complicity – acquiring, transporting, possessing, offering or selling narcotic
  substances,
• Complicity – offering, selling or making available, without legitimate reason,
  equipment, tools, programs or data designed for or adapted to get access to
  and to damage the operation of an automated data processing system,
• Complicity – organized fraud,
• Criminal association with a view to committing a crime or an offense punishable
  by 5 or more years of imprisonment,
• Laundering of the proceeds derived from organized group’s offences and crimes,
• Providing cryptology services aiming to ensure confidentiality without certified declaration,
• Providing a cryptology tool not solely ensuring authentication or integrity
  monitoring without prior declaration,
• Importing a cryptology tool ensuring authentication or integrity monitoring
  without prior declaration.”

At the time of writing, no official comment or statement regarding the charges has been issued by the Telegram CEO, but the platform did respond to claims it does not moderate earlier this week by stating on X that, “Telegram abides by EU laws, including the Digital Services Act — its moderation is within industry standards and constantly improving.”

Durov has also received support from different corners of the internet, with Elon Musk posting #FreePavel on X, while Edward Snowden has noted that the arrest is politically motivated given the popularity of Telegram in Russia and Ukraine, per Engadget.

While it remains to be seen what the fate of Durov will be, as well as whether the claims in the charges are indeed true, it is clear that the Telegram CEO is a key target for French authorities and increased scrutiny of social media platforms in the European Union.

[Image – Photo by Dima Solomin on Unsplash]