Pavel Durov, the co-founder and chief executive officer of encrypted-messaging app company Telegram Messenger Inc., was arrested by French authorities on Saturday evening local time on serious charges relating to abetting terrorism, fraud, money laundering and crimes against children.

The charges do not allege that Durov himself undertook any such crimes. However, it’s alleged that he abetted them by failing to moderate such content on Telegram.

Telegram was launched in 2013 and has found success — about 900 million users globally — by providing an encrypted messaging platform where messages cannot be monitored or intercepted as they are encrypted. Telgram’s secure-by-design encrypted offering is core to its appeal and Durvo, a self-avowed libertarian, has refused to compromise on the stance, weaken the encryption or provide backdoor access for Western intelligence services.

Durov was arrested by agents of the French Air Transport Gendarmerie, the Cyberspace Gendarmerie Command, the National Anti-Fraud Office and Border Police on the tarmac at Le Bourget Airport at about 8 p.m. local time after landing in a private jet.

The arrest relates to the lack of censorship at Telegram, although the exact charges are not clear. According to FF1Info (translated from French), Durov was arrested on a warrant issued by the Minors Office of the National Director of the French Judicial Police based on a preliminary investigation.

The preliminary investigation found that Durov failed to cooperate with law enforcement and undertake moderation, making Durov and, hence, Telegram an accomplice in drug trafficking, “pedo criminal” offenses and fraud. Durov was expected to be possibly indicted on Sunday on a multitude of offenses relating to terrorism, narcotics, complicity, fraud, money laundering, receiving stolen goods and pedo criminal content.

In response to the arrest, Telegram said that it abides by Europen Union laws, including the Digital Services Act and that its moderation is within industry standards. It added that Durov has nothing to hide and “it is absurd to claim that a platform or its owner are responsible for abuse of that platform.”

Irrespective of how the charges play out, the case is notable because of exactly what Telegram says: Durov, as the CEO, has been arrested not for any direct criminal wrongdoing but for the actions of others on a platform he co-founded and runs. And if the founders and operators of platforms can be arrested in the EU for people doing the wrong things on their platform, what’s to stop Elon Musk or Mark Zuckerberg from being next?

Musk, in particular, has been targeted by the EU previously for not censoring content they didn’t like, such as in October last year. Earlier this month, EU Commissioner Thierry Breton claimed that Musk was not compliant with the Digital Markets Act, the same act mentioned by Telegram in relation to the accusations against Durov. Musk is probably better off not visiting France anytime in the near future.

While Zuckerberg and Meta may not have been targeted so far in the same way, mostly because Meta tries to be compliant when it comes to censorship, the same criminality alleged against users of Telegram that led to Durov’s arrest is all over Meta products.

Durov’s arrest has arguably opened a Pandora’s Box of potential legal action against platform owners for the actions of their users.

Photo: Hubert Burda Media/Flickr