lThe debates surrounding Pavel Durov’s arrest and custody in Paris and its consequences for the Telegram platform are giving rise to contrasting judgments and digital controversies. This is because the app and its founder allow both the worst and the best.
For the best, this is the story of a platform that was built in opposition to censorship and digital surveillance in Russia. After the Russian government took control of the VKontakte social network he had created, Pavel Durov went into exile in Dubai in 2014 to develop the Telegram app, escaping political regulators and security services in his home country. Initially secretive, the new network quickly became a success, particularly in Russia, where it became the preferred means of communication for all opponents of the regime (independent journalists, human rights defenders, opposition activists, etc.).
In 2018, exasperated by its excesses of freedom, the Russian government tried to block the application on its territory, but failed in the face of the inventiveness of Telegram’s designers, who found technical solutions to circumvent censorship. The demonstrations subsequently organised to protest against the blocking, with the participation in particular of Alexeï Navalny, made Pavel Durov the herald of the free Internet in Russia. Since then, Telegram has hosted the most diverse content. Russian democratic media (Novaya Gazeta, Dojd, Meduza…) to stay there. It is one of the last places of political and media pluralism for the opposition members excluded from the public space and, now, since the massive aggression in Ukraine, mostly forced into exile.
Support for embezzlement
To make matters worse, since the app could not be banned, the Russian state chose to use it and circulate its official and unofficial content. Russian institutions have opened their channels (such as the Russian Ministry of Defense), as have propagandists, who broadcast their war policy. In Russia and far beyond its borders, the platform has been controlled by traffickers of all kinds. There we find networks selling drugs, weapons, prostitution, as well as the most diverse conspiracy sites.
Within the European Union (EU), in an open media context, the Telegram app is of little interest to news sites, political movements or associative projects, which have other communication spaces. On the other hand, illicit content thrives there. Simply log in to order cocaine, ketamine and chemicals of all kinds. In cities and in the countryside, Telegram allows misappropriation with complete discretion. However, you must be an actor in this traffic, a seller or a consumer, to access this content. There is no recommendation system on Telegram and you will only be able to find this content if you search for it. This means that the app is a support for malicious practices that already existed and will probably survive.
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