This is a sad reality on the messaging service: what made Telegram gain an incredible popularity across the years, was its complete dedication to free speech, and its full respect of the privacy of all its users.
Still, as I was anticipating, this was a double-edged sword: on one side it made the app very successful, on the other it made it a perfect tool for terrorists, drug seller and far-right extremist groups.
The service is, in fact famous, to host channels and groups in which very large number of people can broadcast ideas.
Mr. Durov , was released earlier Wednesday after four days of questioning. Investigative judges filed preliminary charges Wednesday night and ordered him to pay 5 million euros bail and to report to a police station twice a week, according to a statement from the Paris prosecutor’s office.
David-Olivier Kaminski, a lawyer for Durov, was quoted by French media as saying, “it’s totally absurd to think that the person in charge of a social network could be implicated in criminal acts that don’t concern him, directly or indirectly.”
Internationally this event was connected to a variety of reactions.
In Russia, for example, some government officials called it politically motivated and proof of the West’s double standard on freedom of speech.
In Iran, a country in which Telegram is widely used despite all the bans it faced in recent years, the Islamic Republic supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei praised France for being “strict against those who “Violate your governance” of the internet.
French President Emmanuel Macron said on Monday that Durov’s arrest wasn’t a political move but part of an independent investigation. Macron posted on X that his country “is deeply committed” to freedom of expression but “freedoms are upheld within a legal framework, both on social media and in real life, to protect citizens and respect their fundamental rights.”

And how to ignore the hashtag #freepavel launched, among the others, by Elon Musk himself on his platform “X”.

The relevance of a figure like Mr.Durov together with his ambigous relation with both Russia (he is officialy an enemy of the Kremlin, but still there is not clarity among a lot of his bonds with his country of origin) and the same France, since he has apparently had multiple meetings with President Macron, (the latter is also an avid user of Telegram ) leave us with different unanswered questions.
Some of which could find answers in the ongoing investigation.