How does Telegram work and why is it controversial?

Telegram CEO Pavel Durov was arrested by French authorities this week on charges including complicity in drug trafficking and facilitating the spread of child sexual abuse material, as part of a broader investigation into illegal activities on the messaging platform he founded.

Durov is also accused of money laundering, and collaborating with organised crime, according to a statement released by French prosecutor Laure Beccuau. The accusations also included improper use of cryptography, and failure to allow authorised law enforcement interception, both of which have been "flash points in the efforts by some governments to force companies to reveal private messages between users", according to The Washington Post. 

Durov was granted bail of €5 million and, as a condition of his release, is prohibited from leaving France and must report to a French police station twice a week. 

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Why is Durov's arrest significant?

The arrest is the "most dramatic action to date" in the "global fight between officials and tech companies over limits to harmful content", said The Washington Post. Durov's arrest "reignites a fierce debate" over free speech on social media platforms, as governments step up efforts to "police the role of social media and messaging platforms in spreading illegal and false information", said the paper. 

Telegram has come under particular scrutiny in recent years as online experts have argued that the platform has created a "uniquely ripe environment for harmful activity" despite other social media platforms also drawing similar scrutiny. Even so, Durov's arrest is a "sharp break" from the norm, said The Guardian.

While governments have exchanged "strong words" with social media platforms and messaging platforms before, "rarely have there been arrests".

What exactly is Telegram?

The globally popular messaging platform offers both broadcast channels – where users can send messages to large groups of people – and user-to-user chats. 

It also offers what it calls "secret chat" conversations that are end-to-end encrypted, which means that messages are decipherable only to participants in the conversation and no one – including Telegram itself – can see the contents of these chats.

Why is Telegram so controversial?

Telegram's "secret chat" feature and self-deleting messages have made it an "extremely useful" tool for political dissidents and journalists in repressive regimes, said Vox. But its "anything-goes approach to moderation" means that it has become not only a "megaphone" for global leaders such as Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, but also for nefarious groups such as Islamic State and Hamas, said the Financial Times.

Since its founding, Telegram has "allegedly enabled some truly shocking crimes," including coordinating IS attacks in Paris and Berlin, said Vox. Although the platform "cracked down on IS-based activity" after these attacks, its content moderation has remained under fierce scrutiny.

Critics frequently argue that Telegram "acts as a magnet for the lawless, for disinformation pushers, conspiracy theorists and extremists" who are increasingly restricted on platforms like Facebook and YouTube, added the FT. Experts also warn that Telegram is "increasingly weaponised for propaganda by the very governments whose citizens may rely on it for information". And its Dubai headquarters have allowed it to evade much of the regulatory scrutiny facing Silicon Valley platforms.

How is Telegram different from WhatsApp?

Telegram markets itself as a secure messaging platform, but unlike WhatsApp and Signal, it does not offer end-to-end encryption by default. This encryption is only available in its "secret chat" feature, meaning most conversations are encrypted "only insofar as they can't be read by any random person connected to your wifi network", explained The Guardian.

While Telegram markets itself as a more secure alternative to WhatsApp and Signal, especially against US government surveillance, in reality, it lacks the protection its competitors offer. Unlike its end-to-end encrypted rivals, "if a government comes knocking at Telegram's door asking for information on a wrongdoer, real or perceived, Telegram doesn't have the same safety that its peers do", said the paper.  And by trying to straddle both private and public messaging, Telegram "may have lost the defences of either".

What's next for Telegram and other platforms?

It's unclear. Telegram is just one of several platforms criticised for poor moderation and failing to combat child abuse content, disinformation, and extremist material. 

Meta, for example, has been accused of contributing to violence against the Rohingya in Myanmar by failing to curb the spread of fake news and hate speech on its platforms. Meanwhile, a 2022 Unesco study found that nearly half of Holocaust-related content on Telegram involved denial or distortion, a higher rate than on Twitter, TikTok or Facebook.

A "worrisome outcome" of France's possible prosecution of Telegram is that it could "embolden countries around the world to prosecute platform CEOs criminally for failing to turn over user data", said Platformer. 

But at the same time, Telegram "really does seem to be actively enabling a staggering amount of abuse", the site added. While it's alarming to see state power used to snoop on private conversations, it's equally troubling to see a private company "declare itself to be above the law".