Pavel Durov’s journey has all the trimmings of the fabled underdog-turned-billionaire story.
The 39-year-old entrepreneur established two tech platforms: One has develop into Russia’s reply to Fb, whereas the opposite grew to become a competitor to WhatsApp. No marvel he’s dubbed the Mark Zuckerberg of Russia.
His internet value is estimated to be roughly $15.5 billion, in keeping with Forbes. The messaging app he based, Telegram, is alleged to be value over $30 billion and is mulling a public itemizing.
However Durov’s legacy as a tech champion is now in query. On Saturday, he was arrested in Paris in reference to an investigation into Telegram’s alleged use as a platform for felony exercise.
There’s little the world is aware of about Durov past glimpses of his life on social media, the place he’s wearing principally black apparel and pictured towards scenic landscapes. Nonetheless, when Durov makes a uncommon media look, it typically grabs curiosity. For example, he spoke to far-right speak present host Tucker Carlson about his views on social media platforms in April, and stated in July that he had fathered over 100 youngsters by way of sperm donation.
His detention by French authorities has sparked reactions from the likes of Elon Musk and set off a broader dialog on subjects the tech world is grappling with, resembling free speech and content material moderation.
From the Soviet Union to Europe and past
Durov was born in Russia, the place he and his household lived till he was 4. They then moved to Italy, the place Durov needed to adapt to a distinct language and tradition. In an interview, he instructed Carlson that his academics instructed him he was doomed to fail, which constructed his aggressive spirit and led him to excel as a scholar.
Durov and his household finally returned to Russia following the collapse of the Soviet Union, the place he accomplished his training and based VKontakte (now known as “VK”), a Fb-like platform, in 2006. It proved a large success and shortly grew to become the nation’s largest social networking web site.
Finally, nonetheless, the Kremlin started meddling with the corporate’s administration, demanding extra management of the platform and inflicting Durov to depart VK and Russia in 2014.
A 12 months earlier than he fled, Durov, alongside together with his brother, Nikolai, arrange Telegram, making it an uncensored and easy-to-access software for all.
After years of transferring round Europe and Asia, as we speak, the messaging platform—and Durov himself—are each based mostly in Dubai. He additionally holds citizenship within the UAE, France, and the Caribbean nation of St. Kitts and Nevis.
Telegram has earned a repute, which might be good or dangerous, relying on who you ask. With a comparatively slim workforce of fifty or so full-time staff, the app has proved to be a important communication device throughout the Russia-Ukraine conflict. It provides options that its rivals don’t; for example, its teams can accommodate as much as 200,000 folks versus WhatsApp’s 1,000 cap. It additionally gives encryption, permits using cryptocurrency, and provides premium subscriptions.
Chesnot/Getty Photos
However some corners of Telegram have come beneath hearth for allegedly spawning felony actions starting from little one pornography to terrorism to misinformation. The platform has gone comparatively gentle on content material moderation, which is believed to be the rationale why illicit content material is extra extensively out there on Telegram.
“Due to the big slice of exercise on #Telegram that isn’t & has by no means been end-to-end encrypted, Pavel’s detention is clearly alarming many Telegram customers left questioning in regards to the privateness of what they’ve stated prior to now & who may be capable to entry it,” John Scott-Railton, a senior researcher on the Citizen Lab of College of Toronto, wrote in a put up on X.
Nations have been flagging these threats extra just lately: On Tuesday, South Korea known as for an investigation into sexually express deepfake photos and movies of ladies circulated over Telegram chats. Brazil quickly banned Telegram for declining to share details about neo-Nazi teams with the nation’s police authorities final 12 months. Unesco highlighted in an investigation in 2022 that about half of Holocaust-related posts on Telegram both denied or distorted the details.
Durov instructed the Monetary Instances earlier this 12 months that Telegram would up its moderation efforts utilizing AI however didn’t intend to police folks “until they cross pink strains.” Following its chief’s arrest, Telegram stated its moderation is “inside trade requirements and continually enhancing.”
What does Durov’s arrest imply for social media corporations?
Telegram has largely managed to discipline accusations of facilitating criminal activity on its platform. By means of all of it, Durov has maintained that he goals to guard free speech on the messaging platform.
“Privateness, in the end, is extra essential than our worry of dangerous issues occurring, like terrorism,” he posted in 2015, in keeping with the New York Instances.
Meta has been caught in a tussle of its personal for years concerning free speech, censorship, and content material moderation. Elon Musk, a self-proclaimed “free speech absolutist,” whose platform, X, has been beneath EU scrutiny concerning its content material moderation, swooped in to help Durov following his arrest.
#FreePavel
pic.twitter.com/B7AcJWswMs— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 25, 2024
It’s a tough stability, however arresting the CEOs of tech platforms is probably not the perfect resolution, Kate Ruane, director of the Free Expression Undertaking on the Washington, D.C.-based Heart for Democracy & Know-how, instructed the Washington Submit.
“Arresting platform executives due to their alleged failures to sufficiently reasonable content material, even content material as disturbing and dangerous as content material that harms youngsters, begins us down a harmful street that threatens free expression and provides an excessive amount of energy to the federal government to suppress speech,” she stated.
Telegram is nearing 1 billion customers worldwide. Though it’s nonetheless unclear if Durov’s arrest might change how the app operates, it actually will increase the stakes round the way it moderates the content material shared over its platform by freewheeling dangerous actors.
In our new particular difficulty, a Wall Avenue legend will get a radical makeover, a story of crypto iniquity, misbehaving poultry royalty, and extra.
Learn the tales.
