Pavel Durov, founder and CEO of instant messaging and community app Telegram, has been arrested at Bourget Airport outside Paris. According to French media reports, Durov arrived there on his private jet. An arrest warrant had already been issued against Pavel. Pavel is accused of failing to moderate content. This allowed criminal activities to continue unhindered on the messaging app. Content moderation is the process of viewing and removing objectionable or harmful content from online platforms. It is a big and important part of online security. At present, there has been no statement from Telegram or the French government or police. On the arrest, the Russian Foreign Ministry has questioned, ‘Will Western NGOs (non-governmental organizations) demand Durov’s release?’ Once a favorite app for ISIS
According to reports, ISIS used Telegram to convey its message for the 2015 Paris attacks. In response to a question on this, Pavel had said that ‘I think the right to privacy is more important than our fear of bad events like terrorism.’ By October 2015, ISIS’s channel had 9 thousand followers. In November 2015, Telegram blocked 78 channels used for ISIS propaganda. Ukrainian President Zelensky addressed the nation on Telegram
Pavel Durov and his brother Nikolai Durov, residents of Russia, started Telegram in 2013. In 11 years of its launch, it has been downloaded more than 100 crore times. People of India, Indonesia and Russia have installed it the most. After the conflict with Russia in 2022, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky used Telegram to address the nation. Telegram was started to avoid espionage
Pavel had prepared Telegram during the ongoing dispute in the VK company. It started as an encrypted messaging system. It was established so that they could talk to each other without being spied upon by the Russian security agency. Telegram was launched on 14 August 2013 for iOS and on 20 October 2013 for Android. Pavel provided the funds and infrastructure for this. He invested all the money he got from selling shares of his previous company in Telegram. His brother Nikolai focused on coding. By October 2013, the app had 1 lakh daily active users. By March 2014, Telegram had 3.5 crore monthly and 1.5 crore daily active users. By 2016, 1500 crore messages started flowing on the app every day. Many media reports mention that in the first few years after leaving Russia, Pavel traveled to many countries with his 15 employees. After which he established his headquarters in Dubai in 2017. According to the official page of Telegram on LinkedIn, the company still has less than 50 employees. Service continues despite not making profit
Almost 7 years after the launch of the company, i.e. till 2020, the company was not able to make any profit. Despite this, the company did not let its service decrease. The company launched premium subscription service in 2022. Within a month, more than 1 lakh people took premium subscription. After this, the company’s revenue increased. The company’s founder Pavel had said during an interview that Telegram would become profitable by next year. He also told that some companies had put a valuation of up to Rs 25 thousand crore to buy Telegram, but he refused to sell the company. The current revenue of the company is around Rs 600 crore.
