Telegram founder predicted to face up to 20 years in prison. What’s going on?
Pavel Durov, the founder of the Telegram messenger, was detained at Paris-Le Bourget Airport upon exiting a private jet. The entrepreneur, a French citizen, may face charges for multiple crimes carried out through Telegram.
Among the possible ones are terrorism, drug trafficking, fraud, and pedophile content. However, some sources put forward other reasons for the arrest of the founder of the messenger.
Why is Durov arrested?
American journalist Tucker Carlson believes that Durov’s arrest is a warning for those who refuse to “censor the truth at the behest of governments and intel agencies.”
LCI TV channel journalist Cyril Amursky noted that Durov faces up to 20 years in prison in France for a criminal case. In addition, Durov cannot ask for asylum in France since he is a citizen of this republic and is wanted only there. The journalist suggested that the businessman could have made an unplanned stop in France due to a lack of fuel.
At the same time, the State Duma explained the businessman’s arrest by his unwillingness to cooperate with the U.S. authorities:
Durov has been in the status of a person who poses a threat to U.S. national security since he dared to challenge the dollar’s dominance and managed to interest large American investors in the “new generation cryptocurrency.
State Duma deputy Anton Gorelkin
Journalists from the Sabah publication believe that the purpose of the detention of the messenger founder is to hide what is happening in Gaza. The publication claims that France will be followed by other countries that want to close anti-Zionist news channels that Telegram does not censor.
Commenting on Durov’s arrest, Steffen Kotre, a member of the German parliament, emphasized that this is a fight against the opposition. He noted that the German media often call Telegram a platform for right-wing extremists and conspiracy theorists.
Crypto community reactions
The Toncoin (TON) cryptocurrency fell by almost 20% amid the arrest of the Telegram founder, falling from $6.83 to $5.37. Later, the coin recovered a little and was trading at $5.63 at the time of writing.
Many crypto industry participants supported Durov, and some even bought TON. Thus, the founder of DWF Labs, Andrey Grachev, bought TON tokens for $500,000 and said he would sell them when Durov was released. Following Grachev, the Memeland project also bought TON tokens for $1 million in support of Durov and promised not to sell them until his release.
Things Foundation launched a fan token supporting Durov — Resistance Capybara (CPBR). Its capitalization soared to several million dollars in the first minutes. The token grew by 300%
Billionaire Elon Musk called the Telegram founder’s detention a convincing advertisement for the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which guarantees freedom of speech. He also published a fragment of Durov’s interview, where the entrepreneur discussed freedom of speech. Musk accompanied the video with the hashtag #FreePavel.
Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino believes Durov’s arrest is deeply concerning. Dark times will come if we lose the battle for free speech and communication.
Nothing to hide
The Telegram team claims that detained founder Pavel Durov has “nothing to hide.”
Telegram said that its moderation meets industry standards and is constantly being improved, adding that the platform complies with EU laws, including the Digital Services Act.
They also admitted that Durov’s arrest represents the most radical national measures against the head of a social network and threatens to fuel the global debate on whether platforms should prioritize online security or freedom of speech.
Community reacts to Durov’s arrest with memes
Despite its disappointment in Durov’s arrest, the community also responded with humor. Many memes about the Telegram founder’s arrest appeared on X:
Meanwhile, merch in support of Durov began to appear in the Russian marketplace.
What awaits Durov?
There are many messengers in the world where the same violations occur as Telegram, but neither the owner of WhatsApp, Signal, Threema, or Discord has been arrested.
At the same time, Durov may be accused of involvement in terrorism, fraud, and money laundering due to his refusal to cooperate with the security forces; the hearing scheduled for Aug. 25 has been postponed. The judges of the Paris court need another 48 hours to formulate the charges.
