“It is absurd to claim that the CEO is responsible for the abuses of the platform”

The debate about anonymity and the spread of disinformation on the Internet is more heated than ever. A week after the prosecutor of the Hate Crimes Unit in Spain, Miguel Ángel Aguilar, requested an end to online anonymity following the Mocejón case, Pavel Durov, billionaire founder and CEO of the messaging app Telegram, was arrested in Paris. In Spain, the blocking of this application was ordered a few months ago for reasons similar to those for which it is now being accused in France.

French authorities confirmed to the media that Durov was arrested as part of a police investigation into criminal activities taking place on the social network. The investigation focuses on the lack of moderators on Telegram and that police believe this allows criminals to move freely within the app.

In response to these accusations, the company issued an anonymous statement defending its founder, in which it assured that “it is absurd to claim that a platform or its owner is responsible for the abuse of that platform.” However, the Digital Services Act (DSA) requires online platforms to moderate their content and remove illegal content and make algorithms more transparent.

Freedom of expression

Political figures, such as former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, and technology figures, such as Elon Musk, have criticized the European Union for allowing his arrest, making him a political martyrPuigdemont’s lawyer, Gonzalo Boye, also joined in the criticism.

Durov and his platform are known for defending freedom of speech at all costs. In countries like Russia, its use has been banned because it does not provide information on political dissidents. Pavel Durov, originally from Russia, left the country after selling his first company, the Russian company Facebook, where he refused to hand over user data to the authorities. Telegram is based in Dubai; Durov has French and Emirati citizenship.

Unlike WhatsApp, Telegram allows the creation of Group chats for up to 200,000 members. This has led to the use of social media more than messaging apps to talk to family and friends. In addition to journalists and political activists, the lack of moderation and collaboration with the authorities has encouraged criminal groups such as pedophiles to use this tool.

Telegram vs Signal and WhatsApp

Signal, another messaging platform considered the most secure on the market, even used by EU officials, encrypts all communications end-to-end. This means that it does not access or store messages, passwords or personal data on its servers. In Signal, only users own their data and conversationswhich are encrypted from one device to another, in this way, the company cannot transmit them to the authorities, even by court order. As proof, Signal submits its code to external audits.

On the other hand, WhatsApp, owned by Meta, also uses end-to-end encryption, but only applies it to messages and conversations between users. Profile data – Although it cannot offer the content of the conversation, WhatsApp offers authorities that request it information such as that person’s contacts, when they are online, and the origin and destination of each message. A 2021 report points to WhatsApp and Apple’s iMessage as the apps that collaborate the most with investigative authorities such as the FBI.

Telegram, on the other hand, does not have end-to-end encryption by default. This application records data about the user and the device it writes from: name, phone, contacts or IP address, including metadata and conversations in the cloud. Durov’s tool uses a proprietary (non-transparent) protocol called MTProto.